Valentino Rossi, multiple world champion, probably the greatest rider of all time, icon and court jester. Casey Stoner, devastatingly quick, consistent and Mick Doohan-esque in his attitude to racing.
Their rivalry has defined MotoGP in its past two seasons and will shape 2009, which begins under lights in Qatar this weekend.
After relinquishing the title he had owned for years, Rossi withheld the challenge from his new nemesis in Stoner to take back the crown in 2008 with a dominant display, scoring points in every race and taking sixteen podiums from eighteen races.
The rivalry with Stoner reached its zenith at Laguna Seca last season when the pair exchanged the lead several times in an epic duel, Stoner cracking in the end and Rossi going onto the title.
Despite setting the benchmark in off-season testing, with his Ducati team rediscovering the form that rocketed Stoner to the 2007 title, concerns over Stoner’s wrist injury and the sheer genius of Rossi negate the Aussies title favouritism.
There are few riders with the bike or ability to disrupt the duel between the Aussie and Italian.
Jorge Lorenzo, teammate to Rossi, has the natural talent, bike and, thanks to the sole tyre supplier rule, he is on the same rubber as Stoner and Rossi. But he needs to curtail his crashing ways in his sophomore season, and the same goes for compatriot Dani Pedrosa, whose feeble body has once again taken a battering following an off season testing crash.
Another Aussie will feature in the tight midfield battle, the underrated Chris Vermeulen, who looks to have the bike capable of challenging in not just the wet this season.
Hopefully the battles in the midfield along with the Rossi and Stoner duel will help spice up the racing, which has sadly been missing in the 800cc era.
Motorbike racing’s popularity is built on the assumption that it delivers exciting, edge of your seating racing.
It was this feature that differentiated the category from F1 and helped its rise in the post Doohan domination era.
But technology in the prototype class dictated by manufacturers has gone too far, dulling the racing to the point that MotoGP blindly followed the pattern set in F1, the category it mocked and promised to be the opposite of.
MotoGP cannot afford another season of dull racing.
The category was already struggling economically, long before the economic crisis that sent the factory Kawasaki team packing, as the sports rulers figure out how to save the category from ruin.
It has already been slow to eliminate electronic gizmos and other such impediments to great racing. Just this year has it adopted a sole tyre rule after much political wrangling.
Its opposition has already commenced its seasons’ with the formbook in Formula 1 turned upside down, while the other world motorbike championship, World Superbikes, for production bikes, is thriving with new manufacturers and exciting rookies.
So MotoGP is already on the back foot.
MotoGP has, however, Rossi, talented, personable and loved, the sportsman every sport wishes they had.
But paddock speculation continues to link Rossi with a possible move to World Superbikes, bored with the electronics and dull racing produced by the 800cc bikes.
His departure would be massive, significantly shifting the power of balance in the sport and may once again force a rethink of whether it is worth having two world championships, especially when the general public sees little difference between the two.
At present Rossi has his hands full fighting off the pesky young Aussie to keep him honest and interested.
The two need to produce more Laguna Seca-like battles to keep the punters interested.
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