Commentary Confirmation

Following the brilliant news that Eurosport will retain their coverage of MotoGP this year, it's great to know that Julian Ryder will also be joining the previously confirmed Toby Moody in the commentary box.
Whilst it's a shame that Randy Mamola isn't on the crew, it's Toby and Julian who are central to my enjoyment of the coverage (particularly as it's more about 125 and 250 which he doesn't really involve himself in).

So this year promises fabulous 125cc and 250cc coverage of sessions across the weekend AND Messrs Moody and Ryder doing the commentary.
Awesome. Fantastic. Brilliant.

In fact, exactly as it was last year before DORNA and the bloody Beeb went and tried to crap all over it!

Yaaaaay! Eurosport Keeps MotoGP In 2009!

Final proof that there is in fact a God, and that we do not live in some cruel and meaningless void, comes this morning with news that - as predicted earlier in the week by MCN - a deal has been struck to return a big fat chunk of MotoGP coverage to the thoroughly deserving British Eurosport.

There is a small degree of sacrifice in that they won't be screening the main MotoGP race itself *live* on race weekends - this is presumably a sop so that the BBC can retain a special status of partial exclusivity on what is largely perceived as the "main event".
Strangely enough, I don't mind that too much.
Of far more importance to me - and, it turns out, many others - is that the wholesale descruction of decent coverage of the entire weekend as far as 125cc and 250cc classes are concerned has been avoided (it still astonishes me that the BBC could have thought they could get away with treating 125cc with such utter contempt given the presence of hugely popular British young guns Scott Redding, Danny Webb, Bradley Smith and Matt Hoyle in the class) - and we should now not have to worry about being able to watch live coverage of a host of the practice and qualifying sessions.

Autosport reports that Toby Moody will remain part of the commentary team - although I can find no mention of Julian Ryder at the moment... Please let it be both of them...

And if you're one of the people who's been complaining to the Beeb, pestering them and taking part in forum discussions and protest messages over all this then pat yourself on the back, because it's without a shadow of a doubt that it's *punter power* that's at the root of the change of heart.
Well done! Top stuff!

And, to be fair, a genuine thank you DORNA for seeing sense.

Eurosport MotoGP 2009 Coverage Looking More Likely

An update to the previous story about MCN's claim that British Eurosport would retain MotoGP coverage in 2009.
They now say that an announcement will be made this week confirming this...

If this is the case, then it is brilliant news indeed.
Even if the sacrifice is that Eurosport do not show the top class race live, the return of all the 125cc and 250cc coverage which the BBC were making a great job of completely butchering / shafting is a huge cause for celebration in itself.
There's no mention of whether our fave commentary team will be retained either.
I really hope so, but on the back of *proper* 125 and 250s then anything else is just chocolate :-)

Until the announcement is made I'm keeping pretty much *everything* crossed.
But it's sounding really promising.

Does This Look Like Silverstone To You?

An artist's Impression of Silverstone

Another artist's impression of the artist.

I'm sorry, but no amount of looking at maps and plans and cute pictures can disguise the fact that Silverstone is a crap, bland, flat nothing of a circuit (that's not improved by the proposed course alterations) with cock-all in the way of anything to recommend it in terms of access. Parking - and routes in and out - is a lottery at best, and its execution and delivery on race weekends is nothing short of Hell On Toast.
I swore after the 2007 Formula One GP (I swore a lot in fact)... I swore that I would never go back to Silverstone; and I still have no intention of doing so; and am already thinking ahead to 2009 wondering which MotoGP I'm going to go to abroad rather than stay home and go to the British GP.

It's a bad call. A totally crap call. MotoGP deserves better, and so do its fans.

British Eurosport To Retain MotoGP Coverage?

The hopes of thousands upon thousands of MotoGP fans (particularly those who, like us, are into 125cc and 250cc coverage as well as the main class) were raised today when MCN reported that British Eurosport may yet retain rights to TV coverage in 2009 (though this appears to be with the exception of live coverage of the MotoGP race itself).
According to MCN...

Live coverage of the 125 and 250 races is expected to remain, as is British Eurosport’s heavy output of practice and qualifying from all three classes.

This would be fantastic news - and I hope to god it's true and our hopes aren't dashed again.

It's become clear just how piss-poor the BBC proposition was, and ongoing public discussions via sites like Crash.net about the coverage and fans' concerns has shown them (the Beeb) to be little short of a bunch of shitwits with no interest in serving up the best possible product for true fans.

Please let it be true - Please let it be Eurosport that I'm following this season with!
You can read the full article here...

Alvaro Bautista Preseason Interview

(*Above: Alvaro during the Jerez test)

The Mapfre Aspar Team has released the transcript of an interview with Bati, covering a number of matters surrounding testing, his accident at Valencia, his return to fitness and his outlook ahead of the 2009 250cc MotoGP season.

Firstly Alvaro reflects on the preseason testing progress...

We began the preseason (testing) very well; riding fast, but mainly working with the beginning of the championship in mind. We wanted to try several things, to select the ones that will help us to do well and to discard the ones that don’t. I found I had a lot of confidence and it is clear that this year we are going to go "all out" (for the Championship). If we are able to begin with a good base the results will arrive earlier.
There are not too many new technical features to try, therefore we are trying to exploit what we already have. We've been busy testing adjustments to the bike which we did not have time for during last season. We will try to find solutions that make us just that little bit better than the past year.

He also explains the accident, and the operation and recovery...

Analysing in hindsight what happened (with the Valencia testing accident), I believe that the fall was foreseeable since the conditions were not the best. It was very cold and there was wind and rain, and in these conditions you always gamble and that day we lost. I fell, but the reason was the bad condition of the
track, therefore it does absolutely not worry to me. I know that when we ride in good conditions we return to being fast.
At first in the circuit hospital they said to me that it would need three weeks of absolute rest and that I could slowly start to work again after that. That complicated things because maybe I would not have been in
a position to start the year fully fit, so along with doctor Villamor we decided to operate. The week following the operation I began to do all types of excercise, and the truth is that this has much accelerated the recovery process. I hope that the next time I climb onto my bike I will be 100% fit.
After the operation I wasn't allowed to do any excercise for one week, not because of the surgery as such, but to avoid that the wound opening up again. I could move the arm perfectly, and in fact doctor Villamor advised me to move it a lot so I wouldn't lose any mobility. The following week I began to work in the gym and this week they will remove all stitches from the scar, and I will return to the training routine that I had before the fall.

Finally he looks ahead to the testing at Estoril and the start of the season proper...

I have the desire to return to maximum fitness and climb back onto my bike to carry on with the good work of Jerez. One has to see if the time is on our side and we can continue to improve. If we do not have any more misfortune, we will get to the first race with things quite clear and having done very encouraging preparartory work.
My confidence will be the same (as before the fall) and the only thing I will think is to try and enjoy myself as I have done up until now.
Mainly I want to see how I feel on the bike. I hope that this injury does not influence me much. I aim to be back to 100% fitness, and the idea is to continue working with the same confidence and optmism that we displayed during the test in Jerez. If we could improve the bike a bit more it would be perfect, but also just with having a good feeling for the bike and the collarbone not bothering me I would be satisfied.

OFFTOPIC: elcantodelloco.co.uk - My New Website

More than a couple of times I've used this blog to publish news about another love of mine - Spanish band El Canto Del Loco - on the basis that they just about qualify as an "offtopic" given that Alvaro himself is a big fan.
Well, I've finally decided that rather than knock out the odd story here, it would make more sense to actually build a news, info and downloads site about them...

As a result, I've built and launched www.elcantodelloco.co.uk - an El Canto Del Loco fansite in English which aims to spread the word about another fantastic Spanish phenomenon to people outside of Spain and to pass on news and info in the English language.
If you or anyone you know likes ECDL or is curious then please do point your browser at the site to keep up with the band and their activities (especially if they ever include activities in the UK, which I desparately hope they will!)

Already the site includes info on all their albums; De personas a personas, Personas, Arriba el telón, Zapatillas, Estados de ánimo, A contracorriente, and El Canto del Loco - plus videoclips, desktop wallpaper, weblinks, news on record sales and info on a cool introductory El Canto Del Loco iMix you can grab from iTunes.

Go see...
Enjoy :-)

Alvaro Speaks On His Injury & The 2009 Season

Here's some words form Alvaro at a press conference held in Talavera de la Reina, both about his collarbone injury and also about the season ahead...

"I have the normal pains and aches after surgery, but I can already ride a bike again, although I must follow the path of recovery. I hope to be without any problems at next the test.
No injury comes at the right time, but in my case we can speak of luck, since the crash and the collarbone fracture happend when we have enough time to recover, to continue with the training and to be prepared for the first test of the championship.

...The season looks to be very difficult and complicated when we have to try and be better than the guy with the number one and, in addition, better than strong riders who moved up a class and other riders who already had two seasons in 250cc and have the same goals we have. We are going to approach the season with calm, tranquillity and will go race by race and, mainly, we know that the pressure is on the rider who defends the title.

Last season we wanted too much too quickly, to be leaders as rapidly as possible and that made us commit errors. We have learned from that and we know more than last year - in my case among others things that I already know how to race against the present champion who I haven't battled before.
We are all very determined, with much motivation and, mainly, optimistic after seeing the laptimes we managed to do in the tests. The whole team is in high spirits and, which is also important, having a good base in this moment of crisis”.

All very positive sounding on both counts, and we look forward to seeing him follow such positivity through very soon :-)

Alvaro & Sidi - Jerez Pic

On a slightly cheerier note, setting aside the injury problems, now that I'm back from holidays I can share with you this photo courtesy of the SIDI press office, which they sent on of Alvaro posing it at the Jerez test sessions (which were just ahead of the Valencia tests) and showing off his new SIDI Vortice boots, along with SIDI's promoter Alessandro Cavallina.
Brings a smile...

Video Interview With Alvaro - Post Surgery

Check out Tamara's Bati VLOG for a clip with him after surgery...
You can see the damage and fixing in the X-Rays and also how he's looking and moving around.
Speedy recovery Bati :-)

Alvaro Recovering From Surgery On Collarbone

Although I´m still abroad and on holiday I had to post up a quick note to cover the fact that Alvaro has had surgery to fix a broken collarbone following a crash in testing at the weekend.
As always the best thing to do to get all the latest news updates and comment is to go over to the BatiFans.com fan forum where it is being covered in out topic on the Valencia Test.

All that remains for me to say for now is thanks to Miguel for sending me on the news, and of course best wishes to Bati himself for a speedy recovery.
Get well soon Alvaro - Abrazos :-)

gb

Alvaro Signing Autographs At Fitur 09, Madrid

Spanish car hire company SOLMAR rent a car will have its own stand in this year's Fitur exhibition/show (Hall 12, Stand 12B10A), where Bradley Smith, Jorge Martínez “Aspar” and Álvaro Bautista, from the ASPAR Racing Team, will be signing autographs to everyone who comes to the SOLMAR stand on Thursday 29th January 2009 at 12:00 o’clock.

SOLMAR rent a car is a Spanish leading car hire company. Its office network reaches to 26 rental points in 9 different regions, and 18 Spanish airports. During year 2008 SOLMAR has had a fleet of 18.000 vehicles and a million clients attended. To find out more, check out their website at www.solmar.es

See You In A Couple Of Weeks

My doctor's ordered me off to warmer climes to calm down and avoid that BBC-induced anger stroke... See you in a fortnight. :-)

BBC & MotoGP Coverage - Latest Inadequate / Lame Response

For those of us (and that by definition means Alvaro fans) who have an interest in the classes outside of MotoGP itself, the various bits of news and information about the BBC's exclusive takeover of coverage for 2009 has been a huge worry.
I must admit that the choice of commentators doesn't rile me as much as overall questions of the amount of 250 and 125 coverage (you can always turn the volume down), and the fact that much of what we are interested in looks like it will be stuck behind the red button, away from where it can be recorded.
BBC MotoGP Series Producer Belinda Rogerson has responded on Crash.net (in as far as you can call the following a response - to be brutally honest apart from a couple of piffling and largely irrelevant bits of technical smoke and mirrors, and some elaboration on the commentators, it's nothing new from what they said last summer...) to other disgruntled and concerned fans.
Here's what she has to say:

"BBC Sport are proud of their coverage of MotoGP and bringing premier class racing to a terrestrial audience. In 2009 we are expanding our coverage to include Qualifying of the 125 and 250 classes on Saturday alongside MotoGP Qualifying from every round on the red button. There will be live coverage of every race and in Europe MotoGP Extra after the race has finished giving further insight and interviews. That's around 7 hours of coverage each weekend.

"Our coverage attracts audiences of over a million with an approval rating that has been the highest for any terrestrial program in a given week. We believe the BBC team and the commentary team are key to that success and we look forward to another exciting season in 2009.
Steve Parrish raced at the very highest level and Charlie Cox is an experienced lead commentator with a great passion for and extensive knowledge of motor bikes. We always review our coverage at the end of the season and I frequently read the comments posted on a variety of websites including this one but commentary is a hugely subjective issue and we believe we have the best team to lead our programme.
In terms of presentation Suzi Perry has a wealth of experience from years of fronting motorbike racing and our pitlane reporter Matthew Roberts has worked as a journalist for Dorna for 8 years before joining the BBC and his excellent connections with the teams enabled us to break stories last year ahead of anyone else.

"We have taken on board feedback about the non-recordable nature of the red button when viewed on certain platforms and as a result we will be looping the Qualifying on Saturday afternoon and evening and will do the same with the races on Sunday into the following week. A timetable for this will appear on the website at the start of the season.
The inability to record the red button is a Sky Box issue rather than a specifically BBC one so we are doing all we can to enable you to watch the sessions you may have missed live. If you can get Eurosport then you will also be able to access the red button. Under the terms of the licence we can't turn BBC3 or 4 into a sports channel although we can use them occasionally and they are unavailable during the day as the bandwidth is used by CBeebies and CBBC.

"All broadcasters take the race coverage from Dorna and this is currently not produced in HD although I understand they are planning to do so in 2010. We took the widescreen coverage of the racing as soon as it became available at the start of the last season and we are always looking for further ways to innovate our coverage. I have a great deal of time for all the Eurosport team, I know them all personally and I was very sorry to see them go at the end of last season but this was a decision taken by Dorna and not the BBC."

It's this inconsequential stuff about red-button recording being a Sky issue and so-on that grates... These people knew the limitations of the technology perfectly well, and also apparently the limitations of their own channel outputs (not being able to elect to build a sports channel as such) and were by default in a perfect position to see - as me and anyone with half a brain (or possibly less) were able to - that the end product would therefore be a lesser offering by far than Eurosport's.
Why on earth - despite that bit about it being DORNA's decision (what rubbish! DORNA forced them to broadcast this?) did they commit to ensuring they were the sole broadcaster of a product that it was utterly inappropriate for them to broadcast.

I have to say I'm as annoyed about it as when I first heard, as everything continues to confirm my worst fears over the quality and quantity and accessibility of 250 and 125.
Get it out from behind the red button and into the videostream and give us *AT LEAST* what Eurosport did (Friday 250 & 125 sessions for example!) and then you will have found a base level from which to build something to be proud of.
Until then it's a load of crap.
They have very deliberately bid to be in a position where they broadcast an exclusive, yet worse, product than people had before - and the public now have absolutely no choice on TV coverage and have to go to the Beeb to watch something weaker, more difficult to access and more limited in extent of sessions covered and in the ability to record. The BBC should be fucking ashamed, quite frankly.

I tell you I'm just glad I'm going away; I'd have a bloody anger stroke if I had to contemplate this mess much more!