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After some thought I don't really think Vale has lost a huge amount of pace.
What he has done is realised that modern bikes can't be ridden around like the old 2 strokes or early 990's could.
Now you can ONLY make progress along with electronics, you can maybe over-ride a bike a bit but not as much as before.
Simply put, the Duke just suits the way Casey rides. He is fairly old school in that he doesn't use tons of TC and stuff, he prefers it to feel basic, and can simply sit at that level very quickly.
Does that make him a better rider? Well it certainly makes him perhaps the most talented. But does he really know how to sort out the problems?
I think Vale does and he is at that stage now where he isnt going to go 100% and bin it for 5th when 7th is fine coz the bike isnt quick enough to win.
For the win he will push that last bit, Casey pushed all the time and won, but also crashed a lot especially in 2010 when the bike was good.
The Honda is the quickest bike out there, no doubt, the Yam is the best handling, no doubt and you have three guys on the best bikes, Jorge, Casey and Dani.
When Vale was winning, what did you have? Max on a Yamaha, Kenny on a Suzuki, Loris and Barros on Honda's and Dukes, Sete on a similar Honda.
Vale had them covered most of the time as they were not as good as him aswell as being on similar or worse bikes.
Vale is now on a bike he is not happy with (for the first time in his career I think as the Yam was quick from the off) and he is up against riders who are on sorted, quick and faster than his bikes.
So, he is not some sort of God, he can't ride on water and he is certainly not fully fit. But nI thnk he can sort it and he can get podiums, wins maybe not
Casey is closer to God, but if the bike can't work can he fix it without crashing?
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