OMG, Ben looks SO happy...

[superbike]

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2013/Jan/130116a.htm

Sad, come home Ben...

[KatanaGSX92]

He's got a smirk on his face. He's probably thinking... "Man, did I luck out here..."

[curseboy]

oh I don't know...the Desmo has a way of wearing a lot of riders out, injuring them or otherwise ending GP careers:

Checa
Capirossi
Melandri
Rossi
De Puniet
Toni Elias
Sylvain Quintoli
Mika Kallio
etc

Of riders not named Casey Stoner, only Hayden and Capirossi have had great results (sporadically) on Ducati GP bikes. And of course, Troy Bayliss in 2006, when he brought in his superbike team with him, kicked out all the Corse engineers from his garage and took the batteries out of their radios so they wouldn't know how they were setting the bike up. I hope Ben Spies does well but he'd be going against a lot of evidence to the contrary.

[ygolohcysp]

From what I saw in 2012, Spies was doing good at towards the beginning of the season. He'd be doing great in a race right up until something on his bike broke. That's not the rider's fault.