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Italian rider Valentino Rossi of Yamaha rides during practise for the 2008 Australian MotoGP at Philip Island, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008. AAP Image/Martin Philbe
“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games,” said Ernest Hemingway. He obviously wasn’t adverse to blood and guts in his sporting tastes, and he certainly would have been a fan of MotoGP.
Yesterday the world’s greatest riders hit speeds in excess of 320km/h as they dipped into the frighteningly fast turn one at Phillip Island – one of the world’s greatest race-tracks.
Yet, for the majority of the casual sporting fans who sat down to watch the Australian Grand Prix, rather than accepting it as a true sporting contest, it was probably dismissed as a bunch of crazies banging handlebars at breakneck speed.
Casual fans probably watched out of curious interest, or perhaps to perversely watch the inevitable spills, but it amazes me that the antics of Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Casey Stoner and co are not more widely followed and applauded.
It’s not just in Australia. Aside from Italy and Spain, motorbike racing fails to capture the attention of the mainstream around the world.
The sport is often genuinely thrilling, much more of a spectacle than Formula 1. There are few things as exhilarating and spine tingling as the start of a motorbike race. And the riders, namely Rossi and Lorenzo, ensure the crowd is entertained through their post-race antics.
Perhaps the sport struggles for acceptance because it scares the hell out of most people.
Motorbike racing is the closest descended to the ancestral gladiatorial games with riders risking life and limb.
Fatalities still occur and injuries are common. Disaster lurks at every corner.
Riders race on when other sportsmen would be forced to the sidelines. Broken bones, collarbones and wrists are just obstacles they have to ride around.
The injuries sustained by crashing motorbikes are horrific when compared to other sports.
Mick Doohan had his legs fused together so one could nourish off the other, and then went on to win five world championships.
Jorge Lorenzo raced to a podium last season with a broken ankle. Dani Pedrosa has had knee, arm and hip injuries requiring multiple surgeries, yet he hasn’t missed a race this season. A catalogue of horrific injuries fills the history books of the sport.
The media likes to propagate the idea that AFL footballers and rugby players are as tough as they come. But, when it comes to toughness, the two-wheeled brigade are in a league of their own.
They are the modern day gladiators.
Also, motorbike racing shouldn’t be lumped with the tired old stereotypes that plague their four-wheeled brethren.
According to the sceptics, a sport in which you are seated cannot be considered a true athletic test and, therefore, is not deserving of the ‘sport’ tag.
But motorbike racers hardly enjoy a comfortable ride on bikes. It requires immense upper body strength to haul the bikes at those speeds, especially when the bike isn’t co-operating.
They should be deemed as great athletes, despite the fact their bikes are motorised.
Sadly, for some at least, the efforts of the riders was still viewed as an extreme sport masquerading as a mainstream one.