“MAYBE I WAS STUPID TO TURN THE LAST OFFER DOWN ”
Casey Stoner is one of the greatest motorcycle racers of all time and the only rider to have won a MotoGP crown on Ducati’s Desmosedici, the bike that has befuddled many a world champion.
Indeed the notoriously tricky Desmosedici wasn’t an easy ride, even for Stoner. At the end of his rookie MotoGP season in 2006 the 21-year-old climbed off his LCR
“I DIDN’T HAVE ONE STYLE. I WAS MORE ADAPTABLE THAN MOST – THAT’S WHY CONDITIONS DIDN’T MATTER AND CIRCUITS DIDN’T MATTER”
Honda RC211V and onto the big red Duke.
“My first thoughts were, what have I’ve done?!” he recalls. “I thought I’d sent my career down a spiral by going with Ducati. But we never let that defeat us – let’s go to work with whatever we have.”
And that’s exactly what he did, winning more than half the races on his way to the 2007 MotoGP title. Of course it helped that Stoner was one of the most naturally talented riders ever to grace a grand prix grid, which is why he was the only Ducati rider to win a
