By Joe Tatulli
MotoGP Update – 2024 Year end Wrap-up
If you haven’t heard by now Jorge Martin (89 – Prima Pramac Ducati) is the 2024 MotoGP World Champion. Big congratulations to Jorge and the Prima Pramac Team. Next year Prima Pramac is leaving Ducati and moving over to the promising Yamaha platform. The “Martinator” cruised to victory by placing third at the Saturday Sprint and Sunday Grand Prix of the Motul Solidarity Grand Prix of Barcelona 2024. The final race of the season was scheduled for Valencia, but with the major and deadly flooding that occurred there in the past few weeks the MotoGP management and teams decided to move the final event of the season to Barcelona and the CIRCUIT DE BARCELONA-CATALUNYA. Here’s a brief recap.
The 2023, and at the time, current World Champion Pecco Bagnaia (1 – Lenovo Factory Ducati) had one and only one mission; win both the Sprint and the Grand Prix. He did his job and won both races. Martin also had his job and that was to finish both races, and not so far back in the standings on Sunday so as to fall behind by more than his nineteen point lead going into that race. Martin did his job and as previously mentioned placed third in both the Sprint on Saturday and the Grand Prix on Sunday, securing the title of World Champion for 2024 and displacing Bagnaia as the fastest rider in the world.
There will be lots of changes coming in 2025 with many riders changing teams and manufacturers. More on that next month.
One of my favorite days – The Winter Solstice
If you happen to read this edition of the RUMBLE on the day it is published, usually the Friday before a monthly meeting, and for this month (December) that would be Friday, December 6th, then we are only fifteen days from the winter solstice on December 21st. “Hey Joey why is the winter solstice one of your favorite days?” To be clear (and like most of you) I like the other three seasons better than I like winter. Winter is cold and it tends to snow now and then. Riding Valentina isn’t always as pleasant and easy as it is during the other three seasons.
Here’s a list:
1. Can’t ride in the snow or sleet.
RI averages from 20 to 55 inches of snow each year, with Block Island averaging 20 inches and north western portions of the state (like Salty Brine always said, “Foster Glocester”) averaging 50-55 inches.1
2. Too cold to ride.
Personally I am not crazy about riding in the cold weather but if the sun is shining and it’s above freezing and it’s Saturday breakfast time I usually suck it up and head out. I’ve tried a few of the heated gear options but they don’t work for me. I go with four layers. Thermal wicking layer one, my OSBMWR black turtle neck layer 2, my Italian Wool long sleeve zippered sweater layer 3, and my riding jacket. Oh yea, I also wear my base layer long johns under my Aerostich Roadcrafter Classic – Light pants. Last winter we had very little snow and it was unusually warmer for a change so I did more riding than normal and that was a good thing.
Okay it’s a short list but you get the idea. It’s cold and wintery in the winter. So why do I like the winter solstice?
The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. This year the sun will rise at 7:09 AM and set at 4:18PM with an official day length of only 9:08:50, the shortest day of the year. That means that at that moment in time the earth will have reached the place in its orbit around the sun where its northern hemisphere is most tilted away from the sun. It also means that from that moment on, continuing to the summer solstice on June 20th, that days start getting longer, and for me that’s a happy day.
It starts slow. December 22nd’s day length is only three seconds longer than the 21st, but when MotoGP races are won by hundredths of a second three seconds is an eternity. By February 1st the day length is up to 10:04:07, almost an hour more sunlight, and by the first day of spring (the Spring Equinox on March 20th) the day length is up to 12:09:40, another two hours longer. That will continue through June 20th, the summer solstice, when the day length will be over sixteen hours. Sixteen hours! That’s what I think about during the winter to keep my spirits up while I read biographies and history books, and hopefully catch a a nice weather break and ride Valentina to Tuesday Breakfast as often as winter allows.
Below is a countdown clock to the December 20th, 2024 Winter Solstice.
1 RI DEM, Climatology, Overview of Climate in Rhode Island https://dem.ri.gov/climate/climate-overview-ri.php