I started watching MotoGP in 2005. For the ill-informed, MotoGP is the ultimate motorcycle race event, akin to the status of F1 for cars. Racers will compete in 18 circuits around the world, in million dollar prototype bikes and the winner of the championship, is declared World Champion.

And there's one name that dominated the MotoGP right now - Valentino Rossi. Generally regarded as the best motorcycle racer of our time, he has won 5 straight championships (2001-2005) at the tender age of 28. Yes he's the same blardy age as me.

Anyway, he's also the reason I stoped watching MotoGP in 2006. Cos he made it boring. He made it look easy and even when he left Honda (which produces the RC211V MotoGP bike, the bike that's generally regarded as the best bike) to join the not-so-kilat Yamaha, he showed to the world that it's the monkey behind the steering bars that made the difference, not the mechanical monster between the monkey's balls.

But, to my disbelief, he DID NOT attain the world champion in 2006! Some will say bad luck. Rossi says it's complacency. The new champion says...well, actually nobody bothers with what he says.

Which brings us to 2007. An exciting year, as we awaits the Revenge of Rossi. And it's also this year that the clowns in MotoGP realise that the older 990 cc bikes is too powerful and hence reduce the engine capacity to 800 cc. Sure, laptimes may suffer a bit because the bikes are less powerful, but it'll make the sport safer and maybe more competitive.

Their decision was right, but not in the way they had anticipated. Yes the bikes is less powerful and yes, by changing the engine capacity, manufacturers have to redesign the bikes and that means manufactureres like Suzuki, Kawasaki and even KR Proton can stand a chance at beating the battle-proven of Yamaha, Honda and Ducati.

But as the first race for 2007 is over, we realise that reducing the power and engine capacity of the bikes DID NOT slow down the laptimes! The bikes are now lighter, more nimble, and in the hands of world-class motorcycle racers, can carry a higher corner speed than the 990 cc monsters of 2003-2005. Furthermore, now the tires can handle the power produced by the bikes. So although less peak bHP, but it results in more useful power. Just take a look at this screenshot and compare Rossi's lap record in Qatar in 2006 (on the 990 cc, 240 bHP bike) against the winner of the Qatar 07 race (on a 800cc Ducati, about 200 bHP).

In case you're wondering how did the demi-god Rossi lost, he lost because his Yamaha was slaughtered by the Ducati on the straights. The Doctor tried his best and overtook the Ducati 3-4 times on the corners but when it comes to the straight, no amt of late braking or corner speed is going to beat the Ducati. Watch the clip and see for yourself! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=380163608596191849&hl=en

Yup, it's gonna be an exciting year again for MotoGP! One more justification for my broadband subscription then!