Rider Quotes - Interpreting the Rules

Rider Quotes

David Checa, Team Yamaha GMT94: "This race has been excellent; the bike and the tyres worked perfectly together and the team has just worked as one to get on the top of the podium. The last four hours were the easiest, after the Suzuki team crashed; it was just about keeping the pace up and not making any silly mistakes. I'd like to thank Yamaha and Team GMT94 for all their support and efforts."

Sébastien Gimbert, Team Yamaha GMT94: "What can I say? To win feels very satisfying! Everything came together well and the race was perfect for us."

Olivier Four, Team Yamaha GMT94: "The bike was set-up well and Sébastien, David and I all worked well together. It feels great to win here! I'd like to thank the team for getting us here."

Christophe Guyot, team manager, Team Yamaha GMT94: "I'd like to thank everyone for all their hard work. I'm so happy with the result; it's just fantastic to win here this weekend! It was a big fight from the beginning of the race and, although we got the lap record we were only leading by 30 seconds at 10.30am on Sunday morning. Then, the Suzuki which was in second place crashed, meaning we were in the lead by ten laps. From then on it was down to the riders to just ride carefully and not risk any crashes. This result is a great proof of the power and reliability of the Yamaha R1."

Warwick Nowland, Yamaha Phase One: "Finishing fourth last weekend is almost like a podium for us and if it was, everyone in our team would stand on that podium. At the prize giving ceremony I was asked by the commentator if I was satisfied, I said "no". Unfortunately I have a concrete attitude towards winning. I just want to win everything. So life is hard sometimes especially when you can never give up or except defeat.

"I want to say thank you to everyone. I can't control what the mechanics do, I just have to ride the bike no matter what. I can't control what my team mates do, I just have to go as fast as I can. But I had no reason to worry about the bike, it was great. And I had no reason to worry when Glen and Pedro were on the bike, they were great.

"Today is the start of Qatar. It will seem like a holiday race as everything is new and the hotels will be very nice. But apart from Steve Martin and Matthieu Lagrive, it's a new circuit to everyone. We should try and win that race. Build a fast engine Russell."

Alex Cudlin, Diablo Kawasaki 666, on the gearbox problems that forced the team to retire from the race: "When I went down the gears, it didn't select them straight away. A few times it just wouldn't go down at all. James was out on the bike for his stint and he was heading down the back straight at around 270kph when all of a sudden it jumped out of gear. It just wasn't safe to continue. We were only four hours in and still had 20 to go. It really was the safest option to park the bike. It's a disappointment for myself and the team. We were making a strong surge back up the championship ladder and really needed to finish this race to cement our position. But things happen for a reason and now we just have to look towards the final round for a good showing"

"Qatar is going to be great. It will be hard because of the heat, but my fitness is good and I'm ready for the race. I really want a podium before the season ends, so Qatar will have to be the place"

Damian Cudlin, Team Kawasaki France: "I don't really know what to say at the moment, other than I'm disappointed with the decision that's been made by the management. I was told that 43's and 44's was going to be too slow in the race, and that D'Orgiex was a safer bet. Listen I'm not a team boss so I don't know what pressures they are under from other places, but I do know he was wrong about that. The fastest lap of the race was a 1.42.7 and the bloke they replaced me with didn't get anywhere near my times plus he crashed, so I think they shot themselves in the foot to be honest.

"It's a disappointing way to have spent the weekend as it looked so promising in the beginning, but that's racing I suppose. It's a shame it didn't work out with me and the TKF squad this weekend, but I'm still thankful to have been given the opportunity by Bourgeois in the first place. It could have turned out very differently, and I wish them all the best for the rest of the season. Now I'm just looking forward to climbing back aboard the YART R1 in Qatar and hopefully ending the season on a high."

Interpreting the Rules

A lot of comments have been raised both privately and on the message board about the differences in standards applied to various teams and nationalities during scrutineering, qualifying and the race.

If anyone has any specific examples of this we'd be interested to hear about them, especially if there is some evidence. While stories of vans picking up bikes around the circuit seem to be based on nothing more than rumour and supposition, anyone who watched Saiger's crash on the pitlane exit road will wonder about the help given to French teams compared to the rules applied to non-French teams

There are already a couple of video clips from the Bol d'Or on the internet. Watch these and then make up your own mind:

General race highlights:
video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-4057407791584454759&q=boldor+a

After Saiger's crash (from cybermotard.com):
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=14362484159130628&hl=en

Race24 Message Board:
www.race24.com/messages/messages.html