When Yamaha announced yesterday that 41 year old factory test rider Wataru Yoshikawa would be replacing Valentino Rossi, who is out with a fractured tibia and fibula, reactions across websites and forums were mostly in the area of “WTF?!?”Who would replace Rossi and Ben Spies and the rookie rule and it’s difficut interpretation were highly debated and many ended up wondering why veteran rider Colin Edwards wasn’t called in, even if he’s having a “shit season” as he describes it.
Edwards never sugar coats his words, is a fan favourite and probably the bane of any press agent, answered the same question that RoadRacer X’s.
com CJ put to him two days before Yamaha’s announcement in their Tuesday Conversation feature.
After the jump you’ll find an extract of this interview and to find out more about the Texas Tornado’s season, cold tires, and his future when he retires, we recommend that you hit the RoadRacers X.
com link above for an entertaining read.
If your wondering what Edwards is doing in the pic, we’ve heard that CEII usually rolls around on the ground to break in a set of new leathers.
I think that’s probably a big part of it, from what I’ve been told.
Obviously, he has a say-so, somewhat, on who’s going to ride his bike.
The advantages are getting on a factory bike, factory chassis, factory whatever, and having that much better of a chance of putting in some results.
The disadvantages are I don’t know what engine’s going to be in it—it’s an unknown.
I don’t know how myself and JB [Jeremy Burgess] would work, and all those guys.
I don’t want to go there and waste their time.
How the hell is anybody supposed to fill Valentino’s shoes? The other side of that is I’m not paid by Yamaha.
I’m paid by Herve [Poncharal], and Herve has his own team, and we have Monster and DeWalt, and Motul, and Leo Vince.
We’ve got these guys that he’s basically sold the team to them with me and Ben.
Well, how’s it doing to look [if I leave]? My relationship with DeWalt, Motul, Leo Vince—all these guys really like me, and there’s definitely a big loyalty to them.
They’ve signed up as us being the riders, so we have to look at the future.
If Yamaha were to say, “We want you to come ride this bike,” we’re kind of hanging these guys out to dry, and you’ve got some other ding-dong coming in to fill my spot.
I don’t think they’ll be happy about that.
My own opinion is it’s a Fiat Yamaha problem; you sort it out—don’t bring us into your problem.
At the moment, that’s my opinion.
Photo: teamtech3.
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