Cal Crutchlow Leads MotoGP Heading Into Texas
Cal Crutchlow may or may not be your favorite MotoGP rider, Bruce Allen, but the outspoken 32-year old scrapper – following a highly professional win two weeks ago in Argentina – is the first Brit to lead the premier world championship since Barry Sheene 40 years ago. Next on the schedule is this weekend’s US MotoGP at Circuit of the Americas in Texas, a gruelling 20 laps around a bumpy 3.4-mile circuit loaded with long straights ending in heavy braking zones into slow, switchback corners. Fastest speed last year: Jorge Lorenzo’s Ducati, 214.7 mph.
Last year, Marc Marquez won on the factory Honda. This year, bottom rail on top, massah: Crutchlow and his LCR satellite Honda go to Texas with a 3-point lead over Andrea Dovisiozo’s factory Ducati, 10 ahead of Johann Zarco’s satellite Yamaha, and 18 points ahead of fifth-placed Marquez.
Can he keep it up and win the MotoGP championship?
“If I didn’t believe I could do it or the team could do it then there is no point in me turning up,” Cal told motogp.com. “It will be very, very difficult and honestly the likelihood is no. The factories have so many more resources compared to an Independent Team that it will take something very special to do it.”
Which makes it all the more fun to watch. Anyway, it’s a lot of physically and mentally demanding hard work to ride a modern MotoGP missile, never mind at the front of the pack. We stumbled across this really interesting Cal Crutchlow interview in The Telegraph that breaks down what it takes, just in time for CotA. Go Cal! On Zarco, on Vale, on Miller and Maverick!
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Thank you for stoking the MOronic MotoGP fires...
But where is Brucey's COTA preview?
It seems to have disappeared!
Geezus - reading that Cal interview makes me wonder how Rossi keeps that up at 39. Those kind of heart rates sustained over much of a race would probably send normal humans to the brink of a heart attack. At my age I'd stroke out by Lap 3. (or crash on the outlap then take a nap).