Subedei

And that's me told again. I think the "racist" tag was a bit out of line. After all, the Poles are the same race as you are.

Message received and understood. That's me told.

In fairness to everyone else, this thread started with an altogether different title than it has now.

I didn't think it was Grodzki tonight. I thought it was the other one. Or have Sky got it wrong again?

Well, a couple of times tonight riders tried to jump the start and the races were allowed to continue. I thought Nicki P jumped the start in his fateful heat with TG. And then TR tried to jump the start once. Famously, of course, Lindback has made a reputation of trying to jump the starts in the GPs and last week's SWC. Why are referees not clamping down on it?

As for the Pedersen-Gollob incident, I thought Nicki P jumped the start in the re-run anyway. But it doesn't look as if referees are bothering with unsatisfactory starts anymore. There were a couple tonight that he let go. And, of course, the Lindback couple in the SWC final that were allowed to go. I thought TG was lucky to get away without an exclusion. But I was certainly pleased he did. But he's got to start riding "smarter" races. He could've, possibly should've won 3 - 4 races there tonight. But he didn't. And it's because he leaves too much space for riders with too much class, and Lee Richardson.

Jonsson was indeed superb at Cardiff. But he chose a poor gate in the semis and didn't make the final. Thus, this was his best GP of the season. Perhaps not by miles, but by quite a distance. I agree his battle with Crump was excellent. But you always knew Crump was going to win it. Gollob was certainly value for money, as ever, but I doubt he'll be happy with his performance tonight. I thought I had:

I didn't know there was a party.

Special credit to BP. He could've stayed down and taken his chances, but he got up and off the track. Very honest. Maybe too honest, to be honest. I don't think the Poles are cheats. There may have been a little gamesmanship tonight, but no more than TR and Andersen at Cardiff. TG took a couple of chances and got lucky. Maybe he could've stayed up, like he did in a couple of later heats, but he didn't. He went down and got a decision. Just as TR and Andersen did in Cardiff. And plenty of others have before and plenty of others will in the future.

And for the next round, the Subedei picks are: Tomasz Gollob - 1450 credits Jaroslaw Hampel - 50 credits

Well, as ever, here's my assessment of tonight's riders: Leigh Adams: One of his better GP efforts this season. Did well to make the final, but never looked like a winner. Hans Andersen: Another pretty dreadful GP night for Andersen. He’ll be lucky to still be around the GP circus next season. Jason Crump: A super GP from the champ. His ride in the final was outstanding and he keeps the GP season alive – just. Tomasz Chrzanowski: Awful. He’ll not be around next season. Jonas Davidsson: I thought this was an encouraging display from the youngster. Certainly wasn’t disgraced and will have learnt much. Tomasz Gollob: A major disappointment after last weekend SWC. He was lucky to stay in a couple of heats after hitting the deck. Will have to do an awful lot better at Bydgoszcz. Jaroslaw Hampel: Another major disappointment. With a bit of luck he might’ve made the semis. But he didn’t and he didn’t really deserve to. Greg Hancock: Did well to make the semis, but you couldn’t see him getting beyond the semis. Andreas Jonsson: Disappointing in his first ride and outstanding from then on. Had a great battle with Crump in the final and was a little unfortunate not to win the GP. His best GP of the season by miles. Antonio Lindback: Battled hard and did well enough. Didn’t get up to any tapes mischief either. So things are improving. Scott Nicholls: Outstanding in the qualifiers, but you suspected it would all go wrong in the semis. And it did. Another encouraging show from the fellow, but he’s got to start getting the semis right. Bjarne Pedersen: And his poor GP – good GP run just keeps going. Actually I thought BP was a little unlucky tonight and a little too honest for his own good. He could’ve stayed down in his 4th heat and taken his chances. But he didn’t and it might’ve cost him a semi place. Expect to see him challenging at Bydgoszcz. Nicki Pedersen: Was unlucky to be excluded when Gollob went down. He made the semis, but will be disappointed with this GP. Lee Richardson: Started well, was unlucky in his second outing with the tapes problem and then faded badly – very badly. You can’t see him being with the GP circus next season. Tony Rickardsson: A disappointing GP for TR. But he still made the final and finished third. Just shows you the high standards the fellow has set this season when third is disappointing. Ryan Sullivan: Was he there? Another anonymous display from a rider you can’t see being in the circus next season. Forgive me if I've put someone in the semis who wasn't. I'm getting very old and doddery.

Silly Subedei. I forgot to add my original 150 stake on Jonsson onto my total. It must be old age. See how you manage when you're 800+ years old. Edit: Anyway, once again my "buddy" Andreas Jonsson doesn't let me down. People think I don't like him. How wrong they are. I think he's great. He so seldom lets me down.

Looks like I've mis-calculated mine again. I thought I had 1360 points after tonight. But, I've got even more than that. Edit: Young Turner, I think you have got mine wrong. I had 760 points and placed 150 each on Gollob and Jonsson. Which means my calculation for tonight is: 150 x 6 + 460 = 1360 I only have 1510 if you add my 150 points for Gollob onto that.

And Andreas Jonsson doesn't let me down. I had him in the competition and it's big points for the Mongol: 6 x 150 + 460 = 1360 Well done young fellow. Just a shame TG couldn't make it as well. But there's always Bydgoszcz.

To my mind, Gollob hits the deck when Gollob feels like hitting the deck.

I've often felt that Tomasz Gollob - a rider I admire greatly - hits the deck when he feels like hitting it. He can control a bike in impossible situations and then has two falls as innocuous as tonight.

And if you only had 1 point, you'd be out. A single point can't be divided and you can't select just 1 rider.

I see Tarnow have named Scott Nicholls to replace TR in their side for Sunday's Ekstra Liga meeting at Wroclaw. Maybe Tony's expecting to have some serious celebrating to get through tonight.

I think at least 3 different people were described as being the Polish manager by Nigel Pearson over the course of the run-off and final. It was the one with the moustache young Pearson.

He seemed pretty interested in the SWC round at Eskilstuna. He scored 13 points and chased Gollob hard enough in one race. And he won his opening race in the final. But then, like everyone else, he got blitzed by the super Poles. Tomasz Gollob to win at Malilla. Well, let's have a look at BP's form in the GPs thus far: Wroclaw - hopeless Eskilstuna - excellent Krsko - hopeless Cardiff - excellent Denmark - hopeless Prague - excellent Do you see a pattern emerging? No? I'll give you a clue. Add "Malilla - hopeless" to the list.

I'm afraid "pivo" is the Czech for beer. The Polish is "piwo".

And only a couple of weeks to re-stock before his return.

Must be the time travel special for the SWC.

Any news yet on the "wild card" for Bydgoszcz?

I think there's other threads about who's going to Bydgoszcz. And, of course, a large number who are going are probably in transit from their SWC trip. Rico wouldn't miss a Gollob (Bydgoszcz) GP for anything.