Window of opportunity

Mick Doohan said in his book, Thunder from Down Under, that he only worried about his front tyre. In fact, he'd get the rear sliding, so that'd be out of the way and he could get on with focussing on the front. Wow! So that's how the gods ride. Among his other pearls was the bit where he says that sometimes, when his twitchy, powerbandy NSR would make too much power for the moment, he'd gently bleed it off with the clutch.

I don't know about you, but reading this kind of on the bike, in the scene, watch over my shoulder sort of passages gives me the goose bumps. Especially when a ghost-writer or sub-editor has hacked it into lucid, word-(photo-realistic)-painting shape. Then it's outstanding. You can just close your eyes and arrive slambang in the middle of the action. And just for a fleeting moment, feel the greasy feedback from the wildly spinning rear, sense the sheer physical force that is trying to slew the bike out from under you, see your fingers react by pulling the clutch in just a fraction, and hear the revs rise in protest, but the wheel slow in response. And then, the unsaid enters the picture as well. Then you're pushing the outside peg down, lifting off the seat and getting the weight over the front tyre to preclude any time-sapping wheelies when the rear hooks up again. All this in a moment. A sheer fraction of time. Filled with a lifetime of action and reaction, sensation and decision, fear and confidence. Then, in a moment, you flip the page and re-enter the fascinating story again...