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Last week during International Women's Day, my colleague Tammy Gorali - the first female commentator ever in the MotoGP paddock, I should point out - tweeted some timely statistics about female attendance at MotoGP races.

In short, here tweets showed that over the past four years, the number of female spectators has declined an astonishing 19%. That's no small drop, and the timeliness of that revelation should be noted.

On its face, this tweet showed that MotoGP was seemingly hemorrhaging female fans. But, the reality isn't as clearcut, and this is also where things get weird.

Intrigued by Gorali's info, I dug into the numbers a bit further to see what was behind this startling statistic. What I found was that if you pulled the scope back further by just one more year, then over the past five years female attendance at MotoGP races has actually increased by 33%.

If your brain is hurting right now, that's ok, but it is difficult to understand how the number of women attending MotoGP races declined by 19% over the past four years, but increased somehow also increased 33% over the last five?

Keep on reading, and I will try and shed some light on this curious case of female MotoGP attendance.

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If the Movistar Yamaha launch at Barcelona made one thing clear, it is that the feud between Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez will be just as bitter in 2016 as it was in 2015.

In Barcelona, Rossi once again repeated the litany of charges he leveled against Marc Márquez at the end of last season. Márquez had decided early in the season he would try to stop Rossi from winning the title, had played with Rossi at Phillip Island, done far worse at Sepang, then stayed behind Lorenzo at Valencia to hand him the title. For Valentino Rossi, nothing has changed since Valencia 2015.

Is this a problem for MotoGP? Those in senior positions in the sport certainly think so. At the Movistar launch, Yamaha Racing boss Lin Jarvis spoke of the need for respect from all parties.

On Friday, the FIM issued a press release containing an interview with FIM President Vito Ippolito, in which he said the FIM had asked Honda not to release the data from Márquez’s bike at Sepang, which Márquez claims shows evidence of a kick by Rossi, to prevent throwing more fuel on the fire.

Entirely predictably, neither strategy worked. When asked about Jarvis’ comment on respect, Rossi retorted that neither Márquez nor Jorge Lorenzo had shown him any respect at the end of last year.

Ippolito’s statement that the FIM had asked Honda not to release the data led to a host of news stories in the media, and more outpourings of rage among fans on social media and forums. This was a conspiracy, to hide the facts from the fans, they said. The controversy was back, and strong as ever.

We doubt that we have to remind you that World Superbike is coming to the USA this week, but just in case…well…it is. Hosted by one of America’s best race tracks, WSBK  riders will once again enjoy the undulating design of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Those in attendance last year know that WSBK isn’t drawing the crowd that MotoGP once did for Laguna Seca, and the officials at SCRAMP want to change that.

Accordingly, the pre-event press conference this year will be held in San Francisco, and will double as an opportunity for fans to meet the top WSBK and MotoAmerica riders. This should be good news for just about every motorcycle racing superfan in The Bay Area.

Sunday was a pretty good day for British motorcycle racing fans. The first four finishers in both World Superbike races were British riders, and wildcard Kyle Ryde rode a thrilling and aggressive race to finish on the podium in his first ever World Supersport race.

And yet less than 16,000 spectators turned up to Donington Park to watch the action.

When you factor in the creative mathematics which goes into generating spectator numbers at sporting events (motorcycle racing is not alone in this), and then take a wild stab at the number of attendees on some form of freebie or other, then the actual quantity of punters who handed over cold, hard cash for a ticket is likely to be disappointingly low.

Once upon a time, British fans flocked to Brands Hatch to watch WSBK. Though the claims of 100,000 at the Kent track are almost certainly a wild exaggeration, there is no doubt that the circuit was packed.

Fans thronged at every fence, filling every open patch of ground to watch their heroes in combat. So what went wrong?

valentino-rossi-superfan

A few of my friends and I, we have this ongoing conversation about the rider-worship the surrounds Valentino Rossi. I imagine all the greats in sports have their fanatics – the ladies that would do anything for one night with Michael Jordan, the guys that would lick the sweat off Danica Patrick, and of course the thousands of only slightly more well-balanced individuals who spend their fandom amassing countless amounts of branded apparel and accessories.

In the big picture, it is all about the power of an athlete’s personal brand, which in reality functions and is no different than the brand of a corporation. In that regard, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised when we find superfans, who have vast collections of Rossi memorabilia, and follow The Doctor’s career (and personal life) with astute attention. After all, are these individuals any more different than the collector who has only Ducati superbikes in his/her dream garage? Not really.

Yet, there is something profoundly strange about adult…heterosexual…men who fawn over the nine-time World Champion with vigor only surpassed by the that 12-year-old girls show The Bieber. The video after the jump is clearly Bridgestone tapping into this star power of VR46 in its most extreme form. But honestly, if you saw this Rossi superfan at a race, would you really be that surprised?

Alpinestars has cooked up the second part to its profile on reigning MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo. As a member of the new generation of GP riders, Alpinestars focuses on Lorenzo’s elevation in the sport, and what is different for these younger riders compared to their older counterparts. Coming from the soon-to-be defunct 125GP, more riders coming in from World Superbike, and talking to fans on Twitter & Facebook, are all budding issues for the Spanish rider. Check it out after the jump.