was first to ruin the party, by spending part of the first day of testing riding the 990cc Yamaha M1, in an attempt to try and identify where the team had gone wrong on race day. Other 990s joined him, most of them not by choice, but by lack of available 800

be up to speed, in every sense, after a full year of learning the four-stroke ropes. Then there was the meaty issue of the new 800s: what would they be like, and how would riding styles have to change to make them really fast? And finally, to top it all

's opponents up.  Now, Edwards is free to ride as he pleases, and has the added benefit of being an important link in Michelin's tire testing and development chain. If Michelin have a new tire they think might work, there's a very good chance Colin Edwards

-season testing. At Jerez, he will want to be much closer to the front indeed.Home Of The BraveProbably the bravest performance at Qatar was by Suzuki's John Hopkins, riding with badly-injured wrist, hurt in a crash during testing there several weeks previously

and obviously talented young rider, is moving up to test his mettle in the cauldron of MotoGP. On the other hand, there is a great deal of scepticism about the wisdom of his jumping up to join what is currently one of the weakest teams in the MotoGP paddock

up in testing, but he is slowly regaining his fitness. He may also have the screamer version of the Kawasaki to ride at Jerez, as Kawasaki test rider Olivier Jacque has spent a lot of time testing the bike over the past weeks. The new bike kicks out

. So strong is Rossi at Donington that last year, he managed to take a hard-fought second place while riding with a broken wrist. Now he's healthy, he should be formidable.While Rossi is second in the championship standings, team mate Colin Edwards

The life of a MotoGP rider can seem utterly sublime to outsiders. Flying around the globe to ride the most advanced motorcycles on the planet at some of the best tracks in the world sounds like a pretty idyllic existence. Combine this with a very

to this the fact that they Sepang is the third flyaway race in a row, and it comes close to the end of a long and arduous season, which has left many riders battered and bruised to varying degrees. Riding at full intensity for the duration of a MotoGP race

terrible year for the Spaniard. Bayliss is no stranger to the Desmosedici, having been one of the first people to ride it in public during its introduction at Valencia in 2002, and contesting the 2003 and 2004 championships aboard it. The Australian veteran