After seeing Colin's performances this season, I realize that I have really undersetimated him in the past. Being a Ducati rider and fan, I had not followed his performance that closely, and for most of the season, I was cheering for Troy -- when I did start cheering for Colin, it was mostly because Troy's apparent runaway with the championship was getting boring -- how things change!
My understaning it that the goal is for Colin to wear the #1 plate on the 999 Ducati next season, then join the MotoGP team. I hope this works for him. That actually might be the best option -- maybe even a better deal than Troy got -- I doubt (although I hope I am wrong) that the Ducati GP bike will be all that competetive with the Honda (and now Yamaha) 4-stroke GP bikes at the beginning of the season. I expect 2003 to be largely a development season for Ducati in GP. This way, Troy gets to deal with the frustration of fighting for, say, 10th place with riders of much less talent. Given Yamaha's and Suzuki's learning curve, I would hope that by the end of 2003, the Ducati would be getting sorted out and 2004 could be the ideal time for Colin to move over there.