BBC Screw MotoGP Viewers, Again!

The BBC have managed to screw its MotoGP fans for the severalth time, by putting the coverage of Saturday's Assen round of the MotoGP championship on the red button interactive service.

This is because the bike racing clashes with the football world cup and Wimbledon tennis.

It's a tad odd, since the BBC have two channels to show stuff on. Arguments that they can't put sports on both channels at the same time are blatant bollocks, as they regularly spew their Womblesville tennis coverage on both channels. One channel is probably showing highlights of Britain's Great Hope losing in straight sets, while the other channel will be showing a dull match between a couple of Johnny Foreigners that nobody's ever heard of. At least if John McEnroe would lose it and start trashing the studio, tennis might be interesting. But he doesn't, and it isn't.

The good news is that British Eurosport have been permitted to show the MotoGP race live (they usually show it delayed). This means that we will be able to watch live coverage, only occasionally interrupted by crap adverts, hosted by the hugely knowledgeable Jules Ryder and his sidekick, the Alan Partridge impersonator. They may be joined by some halfwit celebrity and/or Neil "You are feeling very sleepy after listening to my voice for 3 seconds" Spalding.

However, for people without a satellite or cable subscription, it's the BBC red button or nowt. At least the race will be available afterwards on the internet on the BBC iPlayer service, for all those fans of the Beeb coverage and its commentators.

Which reminds me, have you heard of the drinking game you can play when watching the MotoGP race on the BBC? Whenever there are only 14 riders left and Charlie Cox tells Steve Parrish to get out there on his scooter so he can pick up a point, you throw your beer at the screen.

MotoGP Rocked by Rossi Crocked Shock

Valentino Rossi was practicing for his 231st straight Grand Prix motorcycle race when his luck finally ran out. "The Doctor" will be under the care of real doctors for some time while he recovers from serious injury.

The 9 time world champion was taking part in a practice session for Sunday's MotoGP race at Mugello when he suffered one of the worst crashes we've seen this year. The FIAT Yamaha M1 brutally highsided the Italian, flinging him high into the air at 120mph before he slammed into the tarmac and tumbled violently through a gravel trap.

When he came to rest, Rossi was lying in agony, clutching his badly broken lower leg. Some of the thousands of yellow-clad Valentino Rossi fans were in tears of shock as they watched their hero writhe in pain. Valentino did manage a wave to the crowd as he was loaded into the medevac helicopter, presumably after a decent dose of strong painkillers.

Surgeons have now operated to bolt Rossi's leg back together and stitch the wound shut. Even in the deranged world of motorcycle racing medicine, this is a serious injury, and it will be at least 6 to 8 weeks before the champ can race again. This would mean missing at least 4 races, so his title ambitions are in tatters.

As Rossi has never missed a GP race before, it is impossible to tell how eager he will be to return. Will he come back too early, as most racers try to do? Or will he take it easy and try to heal fully, as cheating F1 champ Michael Schumacher did when he broke his lower leg. (Legend has it that Schumacher was in no hurry to race with no championship chances, and was finally ordered back into the car when the boss of Ferrari called and his kid answered the phone, saying "Daddy's just getting his football boots.")

It'll be very strange watching MotoGP, knowing that the Greatest Of All Time is sitting at home watching the race on telly with Uccio and a couple of chilled bottles of Nastro Azzurro.

Jorge Lorenzo looks like a major favourite for this year's MotoGP title (he was already kicking Rossi's ass before the injury.) Dani Pedrosa is still struggling to tame the Repsol Honda, and Casey Stoner is still flinging the Ducati at every gravel trap in sight.

It'll be hard for Rossi to watch, especially if his team-mate snatches the title.

Get well soon, Valentino.

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.