Jack Miller’s bitterness in Moto3 title defeat will spur him on towards MotoGP glory: analysis

IN time, Jack Miller will see that he gained far more than he lost in Valencia. It may be the defeat that makes him a MotoGP champion.

IN time, Jack Miller will see that he gained far more than he lost on Sunday in Valencia.

No, he did not win the Moto3 world championship. But the battle-hardened rider that has emerged is a much more formidable foe than the cheerful, wheelie-happy teen that raced to his first win just eight months ago.

The last three events have shown Miller to be more than just one of the glut of talented youngsters rising up through MotoGP’s feeder classes.

He is a genuine star of the future whose name will one day, hopefully, carry the same weight as those of Gardner, Doohan or Stoner.

● MOTO3: MILLER WINS RACE, MARQUEZ WINS TITLE
● MOTOGP: MARQUEZ WINS, BREAKS DOOHAN’S RECORD

Don’t believe me? Go back and watch the last five laps at Valencia, and keep a close eye on bike No.8.

Watch Jack Miller cut his first laps on a MotoGP bike in Spain, LIVE in HD, Tuesday 11 November at midnight AEDT on FOX SPORTS 5.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Miller made his Moto3 rivals look silly. It was almost as if he was in another race.

Twice he was shoved wide, falling into the pack while Isaac Vinales ran away at the front. Twice he charged back, making hard, decisive moves on riders who aren’t exactly pushovers. Twice he turned a one second deficit to dust, running down the race leader with an ease that is not supposed to be possible in Moto3.

Miller hailed it as possibly the best race of his life, and it would be hard to disagree.

Backed up by his commanding rides in Japan and Malaysia — albeit without reward — and his canny victory on home soil when the pressure was on, and you have the makings of a rider with the talent to mix it up with the ‘aliens’ at the front of a MotoGP field.

But all the talent in the world won’t get you within sight of Marc Marquez’s tailpipes unless you have two other things.

The first is the will to work. Miller’s KTM was not the best bike in the 2014 field, but it was the fastest at the end of the year that counted.

He and his team worked relentlessly to understand the handling issues with the KTM machine that crept in as they tried to make it go as fast as the Hondas on a consistent basis. Ask Romano Fenati how hard that is to do.

After a mid-season lull, Miller and machine were back on form in time for him to try and chase down the man who passed him in the championship standings.

Which brings us to the other trait you need to succeed in MotoGP: Miller hates losing.

Look at how he reacted to being beaten. He was angry. Mad as hell. Utterly devastated and furious all at once.

Sure, he shook Marquez’s hand and congratulated his rival on winning the title, but his body language was that of a man who instead wanted to rip out his rival’s throat.

The moment Jack congratulated Alex. You can feel the tension.

Miller has just spent the last few weeks waging a war against new Moto3 world champion Alex Marquez, on-track as much as off. Those feelings are not easy to switch off, especially when you’ve just rubbed leathers and clanged fairings for the past 40 minutes.

That Miller was then able to bring himself out of the depths of despair and fury, look Marquez in the eye and shake his hand ... he deserves to be applauded, not vilified.

Some may call Miller’s post-race behaviour unsportsmanlike. It’s not. It’s the stark reality of racing a motorcycle at world championship level.

Does anyone think Marc Marquez is really, genuinely happy when he gets beaten? What about Valentino Rossi? Jorge Lorenzo? Of course not.

What about the legends of the game: who remembers high-fives and back-slaps between Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz after a hard fought race? Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan were besties who were always happy to see the other succeed, right? Not bloody likely.

The anger he has carried since his clash with Marquez at Aragon has helped forge the rider he is today; just think what this title defeat could spur him to do.

And yet Miller will mentally push aside the greatest defeat of his career overnight to focus on his new goal.

On Monday, Miller will wake up as a MotoGP rider.

Testing for 2015 gets underway in Valencia just one day after the 2014 season ended, with Miller set to get his first taste of Honda’s 230 horsepower, fire-breathing MotoGP machine. The 2015 version of Honda’s customer MotoGP bike made its debut at Valencia; it could well be good enough to fight for finishes inside the top ten.

He will leave behind Ajo Motorsport and his beloved band of mechanics — one of whom, chief mechanic Patrick Unger permed and dyed his hair to match Miller’s for the weekend — and walk into the same Lucio Cecchinello Racing garage that Casey Stoner first stepped into on his way towards MotoGP greatness.

By the first round of next season, the bitterness of his defeat at the hands of Alex Marquez will have receded, but we may yet look back fondly at November 9, 2014 in years to come.

It may be the day that made Jack Miller a MotoGP champion.

Originally published as Jack Miller’s bitterness in Moto3 title defeat will spur him on towards MotoGP glory: analysis