Neil Hodgson Retires

The nice guy of British bike racing, Neil Hodgson, has been forced to retire after "doing a Foggy" and knackering his shoulder altogether.

The immensely likeable Lancashire lad (Hodgson, not Foggy) is a former World Superbike champion, who also raced in BSB, AMA and MotoGP.

Last year, while he was riding in AMA, he was doing some motocross training when the bike spat him off and he landed on his shoulder, doing serious damage. Hodgson decided to return to British Superbike, but had a disaster in practise for the first round at Brands Hatch when he highsided on a cold tyre, landing on that same shoulder again.

Sadly, it was curtains for his motorcycle racing career. Neil reported that his shoulder should recover most of its function over the next couple of years, but his bike racing days are over.

It's a very sad day for British bike racing. Some people have slagged Hodgson for winning the WSBK title by sheer dumb luck, finding himself on a factory Ducati on Michelin tyres when nobody on another bike or tyres could win a race. But Hodge didn't find his factory Ducati contract in a box of cornflakes. He earned it through talent and determination. Winning the BSB title in 2000 helped his GSE Ducati team decide to move up to WSBK the following year. A couple of years as a bloody quick privateer with a win and tons of podiums led to the Ducati ride. (Those results being in the Bayliss-Edwards years, and riding wheel to wheel with those guys is no mean feat.)

His only real competition for the WSBK title was his team-mate Ruben Xaus. OK, the crazy Catalan, nicknamed Ruben Chaos, did tend to fling his bike at every gravel trap he passed by, but he was seriously quick.

The pair of them were both promoted to the first satellite Ducati MotoGP team, but the bikes were second rate and the team was fourth rate, and surrounded by non-stop rumours of [cough] financial [ahem] issues.

So Hodgson was no muppet on a bike. I'd be amazed if Neil wasn't appearing on our TV screens on a regular basis. He's been there and done that, raced all over the world, and he's quite simply one of the most likeable characters in bike racing. Good luck in the future, Neil.

BSB: Disaster for Ellison With Broken Leg

The Kendal Beefcake, James Ellison, has had a great start to this year's British Superbike season. But it all went wrong in practise at Thruxton when he fell off (while sitting at the top of the timesheets) and broke his femur.

The male model looking Cumbrian had returned to the Swan Honda team for this year and was looking like a major title challenger. Due to the crazy new rule package for BSB this year, it's not completely out of the question that he could win the title this year, but it's a huge ask. He would have to make a miracle recovery from his leg break and rack up tons of points to qualify for the top 6 shoot-out.

So, incredibly unlikely, but not impossible. Even with a clean break, a femur injury usually means that the rider's season is over. Sure, he might get back racing towards the end of the year, but it's usually a big struggle to be quick over a race distance (as friendly frog Sylvain Guintoli found out).

Ellison will have to spend the next few weeks watching TV and moaning about how rich he isn't.

Get well soon, James.

MotoGP Qatar 2010 Winners and Losers

MotoGP finally decided to grace us with its presence, at the Losail circuit in the desert of Qatar, run pointlessly in the dark as always. Here is a roundup of the winners and losers.

Winners:

MotoGP. Yep, the series threatened a snoozefest but surprised us all with a reasonably cool race, with overtaking for the lead, of all things. A very promising start to the year.

Valentino Rossi. The 9 times champ was beaten to pole position by Casey Stoner, and his Yamaha was slower than a recalcitrant camel down the ludicrous 1 kilometre front straight, but Vale still battled to the victory. To top that, his bike ran out of fuel on the slowdown lap, so he first of all rode majestically on top of the bike as it was trailered back to the pitlane, then stole a scooter to make his fashionably late appearance in parc ferme. The boy's still got it.

Jorge Lorenzo. Despite his right thumb being attached to his hand with bubblegum and staples, the deranged Spaniard grabbed 2nd place late on. This boy's still got it too.

Andrea Dovizioso. A podium for Dovi, and he kicked the tiny derrière of his team-mate in the process.

Nicky Hayden. Lost out on a podium by less than a hundredth of a second after being drafted by Dovi's Honda missile. A brilliant return to form by the Kentucky Kid, helped by the now-rideable Ducati with its new big-bang engine. I'm not a betting man, but if I was, I'd be putting a few quid on Nicky to win at Laguna this year.

Honda. Damn, this bike's quick in a straight line, and quick off corners too.

Ducati. OK, most of them crashed, but the new engine seems to have made the bike rideable. If only they'd invented this engine before they destroyed Marco Melandri.

Ben Spies. Benny Elbowz made a fantastic start to the year with 5th place, and looks like he belongs in MotoGP. Let's not get ahead of ourselves yet, though. A great performance in Qatar with some bruising overtakes did sod all for James Toseland after all...

Moto2. The feeder category was slagged by all and sundry, denounced as a pathetic replacement for the 250GP category so beloved of the purists. They were all wrong. The little 600cc 4-stroke bikes (less power than a World Supersport bike, but about 35kg lighter) provided great entertainment. They all have the same engines but there are something like 15 chassis manufacturers. A brilliant addition to the Grand Prix circus.

Losers

Casey Stoner. Fell off with Valentino Rossi pressing him, which has happened a few times. Should've had the race in the bag, but there are no points for chucking your bike down the street. Still a major title challenger, but he'll have to stay on the bike.

Dani Pedrosa. The microscopic matador had a great start, but it all unravelled as the race went on. He just can't get on with the new Honda chassis, unlike his Italian team-mate. The danger is that with his contract ending soon, and Dovi battling for wins, HRC will just tell Dani to sod off and refuse to change the bike to suit him.

Ducati. Yep, winners and losers at the same time. With its new, less peaky engine, the Bologna Bullet now goes round corners, and suits the all-action style of Nicky Hayden, but it's nowt special in a straight line any more.

Colin Edwards. The Texan Tornado got his rear end solidly booted by his fellow Texan, Benny Elbowz, on an identical bike. Not a good start to the year. The hugely likeable Edwards will have to spend less time starring in painfully funny "Man-cation" videos with Spies, and more time beating him on track.