Re: Checa
Rossi is absolutely the best rider I have ever seen, beyond all doubt. Not only does he have the pure physical talent, but he also has the maturity and judgement, race strategy, the apparant ability to communicate with his mechanics and other team members to develop the bike and nail the setup. I would bet that if he were to join, say, the Aprilia team, they would be winning GPs my midseason next year!
However, his brilliance has somewhat eclipsed the fact that there have been some damned great performances from some of the more mortal riders, and some of them have made real progress to the point where it is no longer a foregone conclusion that Rossi will win (although that is still where you want to bet any serious money).
Of course rain changes a lot of things -- especially regarding which bikes have the advantage -- clearly Suzuki should pray for rain every race, at least until they figure out what is missing from their performance equation -- Sete in Portugal and Kenny in Rio have been about the only bright spots for the season.
In the past, I have kinda tuned out most wet races -- they tend to be crashfests, and everyone just sorta tiptoes around trying to keep the rubber side down, but I gotta say that Estoril and Rio were two of the most exciting GPs I have seen, in large part to the performances of what I generally consider to be 2nd string riders (and I mean no disrespect, just that they are on a different plain from riders like Rossi, Doohen, Rainey -- maybe Biaggi -- etc).