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The Oxfordshire schoolboy Bradley Smith claimed yesterday that he would not be fazed when he races on the same track as the seven times world motorcycle champion, Valentino Rossi, in 10 days’ time.

Smith, 15, will make his debut in the 125cc class on a factory Repsol Honda at the opening round of the MotoGP Championship in Jerez, Spain.

Rossi will set about winning his eighth world title on his Camel Yamaha in the big race for 990cc, 215mph bikes. But Smith would be happy with a single point for 15th place when he rides his 145mph machine. “It’s going to be great to race in the same series as Rossi in front of 125,000 people,” he said at the British launch of the MotoGP championship in London.

“But I’m there to do my job. Obviously I will hear the noise of the fans through my helmet when we line up on the grid, but once the race starts I’ll get tunnel vision and I’ll only be aware of the rider in front.”

Smith was selected to handle the Honda from hundreds of rivals by the Spanish motorcycle legend Alberto Puig.

Bradley’s father, Alan, a courier company manager, said Puig had selected his son because he had not yet developed bad riding habits. “Puig says that Bradley is like clay and not a vase,” Alan Smith said. “There’s plenty of time to mould him into a better rider.”

Smith has surprisingly mature ambitions. “Everyone in racing says he wants to be world champion,” he said. “But if you set a big target for yourself and you don’t get there, you fall flat on your face.

“So I’m not predicting where I will finish in the championship points table. I just want to set my bike up properly for the Jerez race, improve my lap times and see what I can do.”

Sete Gibernau has been given the all clear to ride in Germany this weekend after breaking his collarbone last month and missing three races, his Ducati MotoGP team said.

The championship runner-up in 2003 and 2004 with Honda picked up the injury when he was involved in a multiple collision at the first corner of the Catalan Grand Prix in Barcelona on 18 June. The race was restarted without Gibernau and he missed the following two rounds as well.

Ducati said that a medical on Monday had confirmed the injury had healed enough for the Spaniard to make his comeback at the Sachsenring. “The shoulder is recovering well and I have been working to get fit as fast as possible. It is a pity that I’ve lost three races but now I just want to ride my Desmosedici again,” the Spaniard said.

“Sachsenring won’t be the most comfortable circuit to ride with a collarbone injury,” he added. “It’s physically demanding because it’ s tight and slow, that’ s why the 250s can do similar lap times to MotoGP bikes.

“Anyway, I like the circuit and it holds good memories because I won there in 2003 and got second last year after a great race. I hope that all will go OK this time and that my shoulder won’t be too much of a problem.”

Gibernau returns in 13th place in the MotoGP standings, 109 points behind the American leader, Nicky Hayden. He had been ninth and 55 adrift of his Italian team-mate Loris Capirossi before his accident.

LOS ANGELES - Still a high-priced product for the cycling upper classes rather than for the masses, titanium-framed bicycles are expected to make their mark at this year’s Olympics.

While not a large market in the overall picture of titanium consumption - the seamless tubing that accounts for most usage probably makes up no more than $2 million a year in sales to bicycle manufacturers - these high-profile performers certainly can’t help but burnish the metal’s reputation as a leading-edge material.

“The entire U.S. road racing team will be on titanium bikes,” said Mark Linskey, executive vice president of Lightspeed Titanium Components Inc.

Linskey noted that although only one of the five road racing team members will ride a bike carrying the Lightspeed name, the remaining four will be on Brazilian bikes with frames built by the Chattanooga, Tenn., manufacturer.

Lightspeed, a family owned firm started by Linskey’s father in 1964, buys most of its tubing from Kokomo, Ind.,-based Haynes International Inc. and from Ancotech, Dearborn, Mich. Its sheet and plate comes mainly from Denver-based Titanium Metals Corp.

Gary Grade, manager of marketing and sales for welded products in Finley, Wash., for tubing and frame manufacturer Sandvik Special Metals Corp., a unit of Sandvik AB of Sweden, listed the main advantages of titanium for cycles as its high strength-to-weight ratio and its ability to absorb vibration well.

Sandvik - which produces tubing from hollows supplied by Oregon Metallurgical Corp. and the Teledyne Wah Chang unit of Teledyne Inc. - hasn’t directly supplied any titanium frames to the U.S. team. But Grade said that four or five cyclists in the Olympic Games are competing on its frames, among them Erica Green of South Africa. Sandvik claims to be the largest outside supplier of titanium frames to bike manufacturers.

Titanium still only accounts for a small portion - an estimated 2 to 5 percent - of the total bike market, where it competes with not only steel and aluminum but other high-tech materials, such as carbon fiber.

However, its share increases sharply to an estimated 15 percent in bikes sporting retail price tags over $1,500. Moreover, Linskey said, perhaps 90 percent of this high-end category carries retail price tags of $2,200 or less, still under the level of many titanium bikes. Lightspeed, for example, makes two models costing less than $2,200, and its frames are found on bikes costing up to $6,000 in non-Olympic versions.

Titanium bikes certainly don’t come cheap. One of Sandvik’s tubing customers is Moots Cycles Inc., a high-end manufacturer that supplies mountain bike frames for $1,750 to $2,600 and makes its own complete bikes that go for up to $5,500.

Tom Grimaldi, operations manager and design engineer for the Steamboat Springs, Colo., firm, said the relatively higher cost of titanium nevertheless brings benefits. “As a metal, its inherent characteristics are light weight, stiffness and fatigue (resistance), and it’s also easier to work in.”

He also pointed out that since titanium requires neither expensive lug work nor painting, certain costs are eliminated.

“It’s twice as strong as steel, it’s 40-percent lighter and it never rusts,” said Matt Bracken, head of sales and sponsorship for Merlin Metalworks, Cambridge, Mass., which builds mountain and road bike frames selling worldwide for approximately $3,200 each. In the Olympics, Merlin frames will be used by the French and Dutch racers in the velodrome events and by the Japanese mountain bike team.

While the 40,000 pounds per year of titanium purchased by Lightspeed shrinks in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of pounds shipped to big aerospace component manufacturers, the bike builder isn’t immune from the effects of a tight market.

Linskey noted that in the past 12 months his titanium costs have escalated by 20 percent while delivery lead times have stretched from as short as eight weeks to a current range of 24 to 28 weeks.

At Merlin, Bracken noted that price tags on frames were raised to its wholesaler by 8 to 10 percent, the first time it has increased prices in five years. One of the biggest fins of titanium bikes, not surprisingly, is the man who claims to have built the first one in 1970. “It’s not a novelty,” said Barry Harvey, president of one of the largest U.S. titanium producers, Harvey Titanium of Santa Monica, Calif.

A former competitive racer, Harvey at one time was a member of the Canadian national cycling team. He acknowledged that titanium bikes aren’t inexpensive, but argued that the high cost of titanium frames doesn’t necessarily eliminate them from consideration as a mass market product in the United States.

“Americans will spend thousands on a bike, and they can afford to do it,” he said.

What are the chances of titanium grabbing a much bigger share of the bike market?

Grade of Sandvik compared titanium to aluminum’s fight for market share years ago, noting it moved from early non-acceptance, to acceptance and then to a period of growth. He observed that, after answering the doubts of early cynics, titanium is now taken seriously.

You’re one point behind leader Troy Bayliss in the World Super- bike Championship going into next Sunday’s third round in Spain. Can you beat him? For sure. I beat him in the first race of the season and I can win at Valencia. Troy is good around the Spanish circuit, but he’s also beatable.

You crashed heavily in tests at Valencia recently. Will this affect your performance on Sunday?

I’d just put a new race tyre on my Honda Fireblade and felt confident that I could do a good time. But I got on the throttle a bit too early coming out of a hairpin. I wasn’t going fast, but I was thrown high up into the air and landed on my head. I had concussion, but I’ve recovered and I’ll be at 100 per cent this weekend.

Bayliss is 36, Australian and riding a factory Ducati’ you’re 25, a Yorkshireman and you’re on a private Honda run by the Winston Ten Kate team in the Netherlands. Who’s best off? People are saying the Ducatis are down on power this year, but Bayliss’s top speed is the same as mine. My four-cylinder engine is a bit stronger on acceleration than his twin, but there are some circuits where the Ducati will be better overall, and others where the Honda will have an advantage. For the rest, coming from Yorkshire is always the best!

You won the World Superbike title in 2004. What will you have to do to get it back? I’m giving this season everything I’ve got - physically and mentally. We’ve started the series off well and we’re not playing catch-up. As long as we continue running at the front of the field, we’ve got a good chance of the title this year.

Your bike does 200mph. Sounds terrifying - is it? Only if you’re not attached to it! Riding 200mph isn’t terrifying to me - it’s what I do. When I’m on the bike, I’m 99 per cent in control, so I wouldn’t say it’s terrifying. Well, maybe just for one per cent of the time..

Describe the feeling of cornering at 60 degrees of lean with your knee scraping the ground.

I’ve never really thought about it. It’s my subconscious that takes the corners, like autopilot. Cornering is just normal to motorcyclists. It comes naturally - I can’t explain it.

How do bike racers walk away from such horrendous crashes?

Motorcycle clothing is brilliant these days. Safety at the circuits is also starting to improve. The track barriers are much further away from the actual tarmac, which means that there is less chance of crashing into them.

Have you ever deliberately banged into someone in a race?

Never deliberately. Motorcycle racing is far too dangerous to be playing those kinds of games. I have “touched” other riders during a race, but it wouldn’t have been intentional. Racing nowadays is so close - you only have to look at the times to see that.

You’ve broken a thigh and lost a world title. Which was most painful? Breaking my femur in three places was definitely the most painful on a physical level. However, mentally, losing the championship was tough. I feel so lucky to have another shot at the title this year with Winston Ten Kate Honda. I wouldn’t want to break my femur again, though!

What’s your ambition in bike racing? My short-term goal is to win the world championship again. Then I’d like to get into MotoGP. My ultimate goal is to establish myself as one of the best British riders ever.

Britain hasn’t had a MotoGP world champion since the late Barry Sheene in 1977. What are we getting wrong? I don’t think it’s due to a lack of hunger. A big thing about racing in the UK is the number of foreign riders here. The Spanish rider Gregorio Lavilla and the Japanese Ryuichi Kiyonari are at the top of the British Superbike Championship, so our young riders have to beat not just the best British riders, but the best in the world before they’ve even left this country.

You ride a superbike and Valentino Rossi rides a MotoGP bike. What’s the difference between them? A MotoGP has about 30 horsepower more, and weighs 30kg less. My CBR1000RR Fire-blade is a production- based machine. You can go into any Honda dealership and buy a bike similar to mine - save some tweaks and a bit of tuning here and there. MotoGP machines are the ultimate in technology. You can’t buy these bikes - they’re like the two-wheeled equivalent of Formula One cars. A lot of money goes into developing them.

What’s the one thing Rossi does that makes him so good? The guy has natural talent. Rossi’s entire upbringing was in bikes and he had tuition from an early age. Through the 125,250,500cc and MotoGP ranks he’s developed into a real class act. Rossi is one of the all- round greats.

If you were in a race with him on the same bike, where would you finish? In front - for sure! No, I can’t really answer that one. Obviously, I would want to beat him but I’ve got to get into MotoGP and establish myself as a rider first. With the right team and right package, I believe I could be just as successful.

What’s your opinion of Formula One drivers compared to bike racers? I’ve had no involvement in Formula One, so I wouldn’t like to say. I’ve heard all the stories about the drivers being a bit unsociable, but I’ve never been in their world. I do think that motorcycle racers in general are a bit more approachable and fan- friendly, though. I am, anyway!

Valentino Rossi changed his strategy to dominate practice for tomorrow’s Czech MotoGP here yesterday, and keeps alive his hopes of winning the championship for the sixth consecutive year.

Rossi put a qualifying tyre on his Camel Yamaha early in the afternoon session, and finished the day around a second and a half faster than the three Honda rivals who lead him in the points table.

“My tactic is to be competitive on Fridays,” Rossi said, referring to times when his team have been slow to achieve a good setup for his bike. “The important thing now is not to start from 10th place, and to finish on the podium at every race.”

Rossi lapped the 3.36mile track in 1 minute 57.871 seconds, 1.6sec faster than the championship leader, the American Nicky Hayden. But Hayden elected to run on race tyres on his Repsol Honda and save his qualifiers for today’s sessions.

“We tried a few things but they didn’t work out too well,” Hayden said. “We’ve still got some work to do.”

The Frenchman Randy de Puniet was the only rider to get close to Rossi, taking his Kawasaki around less than two-tenths of a second slower. Loris Capirossi, only now back to full fitness after crashing in Barcelona in June, was third fastest on his Marlboro Ducati.

Dani Pedrosa, the 20-year-old Spaniard who holds second place in the championship, was eighth fastest on his Repsol Honda, and third- placed Marco Melandri, was ninth best.

Yamaha have their new 800cc machine in the pits here, ready for next year’s regulations aimed at limiting the power and 215mph potential of the current 1,000cc bikes. But the team’s managing director Lin Jarvis confirmed that Rossi will only test the 800 on Monday and Tuesday if the team is happy with its current machine.