It was the most hotly anticipated race of the 2005 MotoGP season: the return of world championship motorcycle racing to US soil after an eleven year break. It coincided with the rise of a trio of American riders: Colin Edwards, Nicky Hayden and John Hopkins. Up against them was 26 year-old Valentino Rossi at the peak of his powers, in the fifth year of his world championship reign. But he’d never been to Laguna Seca before, the most technically demanding, physically intimidating circuit on the MotoGP calendar.