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| (photo by Jerry Smith) |
Kenny Roberts hasn't swung a leg over a race bike in anger in a long time, but tonight Valentino Rossi, Eddie Lawson, and Giacomo Agostini were left sucking his exhaust in our poll to pick the greatest 500cc/MotoGP rider of all time. The King survived several rounds of voting that included greats like Mike Hailwood, Geoff Duke, Barry Sheene, Freddie Spencer, Randy Mamola, Mick Doohan, Kevin Schwantz, Wayne Rainey, and Phil Read. KR beat them all.
So our congratulations to Kenny Roberts. The old man's still got it.
What was the final tally?
ReplyDeleteRoberts 46%
ReplyDeleteRossi 31%
Lawson 15%
Agostini 8%
Rossi was way out in front of Roberts in the early voting, but KR caught up and passed him at the flag.
Roberts may be the greatest now but do another poll after a few years and I'll bet Rossi takes the lead. This whole deal may well be linked to name familiarity... Fangio, Nuvolari, Clark,etc. Wot? They didn't ride bikes? Dang, coulda fooled me!
ReplyDeleteThe results may say more about the demographics of your readership than anything else. Well, there must be at least a few old farts other than me out there for Ago to get 8%... but I find it hard to believe that Hailwood didn't rank at all.
ReplyDeleteKenny roberts changed the way bikes would be ridden. Kenny roberts won races on a damn near unrideable tz750 flat tracker. Kenny roberts won the Silverstone Gran Prix with a broken back, wearing a body cast. I could go on like this for hours.
ReplyDelete