Christian Estrosi, the current French Minister of Industry and Mayor of Nice, not only loves motorcycles (which is unusual for politicians), but he actually used to race them professionally, most notably in the MotoGP world.
He never won a MotoGP race, but did end up 2nd in the Bol d’Or, and even raced last year in the Legends race.
Now that’s a Minister/politician after my own heart!
Shocking, we know. What’s been called the second-worst kept secret in has officially been confirmed. MotoGP rookie and current World Superbike champion Ben Spies (shown at right, with Yamaha’s Lin Jarvis) will be saddling up with the factory crew starting next year. Rumors to that effect have been buzzing around the inteweb for some time and were recently fueled by from the Fiat-Yamaha stable in favor of the Ducati Corse team.
Spies has been an absolute terror on two wheels in MotoGP while riding with the Tech 3 Yamaha team. The Texan is currently 7th in the overall standings thanks to a slew of top 5 finishes, and even managed to podium at Silverstone. Not too shabby for the guy’s first year out. There’s some indication that he’ll be riding alongside Jorge Lorenzo, though Yamaha hasn’t solidified anything with the Spaniard just yet.
Those who follow the MotoGP world will have likely noticed the conspicuous lack of a certain prefix from this post. Interestingly enough, ‘Fiat’ was nowhere to be found in the Spies announcement. Odds are we’ll be hearing something about that from the former Fiat-Yamaha team sometime soon. Hit the jump for the full press blast.
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originally appeared on on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:29:00 EST.
A strong weekend concluded in fine style for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team squad in Brno today with Ben Spies storming to a superb fourth position and Colin Edwards equalling his best result of the season.
Starting from the front row of the grid for the first time in his MotoGP career, Spies made a blistering start and led momentarily off the line before giving way to a typically fast starting Dani Pedrosa.
Wednesday 16th June saw the AirAsia British MotoGP pre-race press conference take place at Lords Cricket Ground near St John’s Wood in London. As customary it’s a chance for the press to talk to the riders about their seasons so far and what they reckon their chances are for the up coming British round of the MotoGP which this year is being held at the newly modified Silverstone circuit.
It has been a busy time in the MotoGP paddock, but maybe for all of the wrong reasons. It has been less like a competitive sport and more like a game of musical chairs as riders have been arriving and leaving the paddock more frequently than a game of musical chairs.
It all appeared to start when Valentino Rossi lost contact with his Yamaha M1 in free practise at Mugello, breaking his femur in the process. Over the course of the next to rounds both Hiro Aoyama and Marco Melandri suffered injuries which prevented them from competing depleting the grid to a new all time low.
Yes that pesky volcano has ruined this too! Which means our next fix of Rossi, Lorenzo, Stoner et al is at Jerez on May 2nd. No will someone please cork that volcano!
The Ducati Multistrada 1200 isn’t afraid to leave the tarmac – Click above to watch the video
If you’re a fan and hail from the home-country of Multistradas, you got to see the official “Strada” commercial aired during the breaks of the first rounds of Grand Prix action last weekend. kicked off its television advertising campaign by showing off its hawk-billed adventure tourer tackling everything from urban assault missions to gravel paths and everything in between.
Although we have been studying our Italian language tapes thoroughly, the only thing we are qualified to tell you about the spot is that it highlights the versatility of the dirty Duc’s four programmable riding modes, which include urban, enduro, sport and touring settings.
If you have ever wondered what lengths a manufacture will go to for that perfect backdrop, we have confirmed from a reliable source that the perfect playground was provided, in this case, courtesy of the Canary Islands. Although we expect to see the commercial in our native tongue of English soon enough in the U.S., feel free to to get the first view. After all, everything sounds more beautiful when it’s in Italian!
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originally appeared on on Wed, 14 Apr 2010 08:20:00 EST.
A fantastic race to kick off the season in the desert under flood-lights with some unexpected twists and spills, contains spoilers for those who haven’t watched it yet.
The long winter break draws to a close this weekend as the 2010 MotoGP season gets going under the floodlights of the Losail International Circuit. Fiat Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo are fresh from the recent pre-season test and both last year’s World Champion and the runner-up are aiming to kick off their 2010 campaigns with a successful opening weekend.
It is now just over two weeks before the premier class of motorcycle racing resumes for another season of action at the opening round in Qatar and there has been some interesting changes in the off-season that look like making this seasons championship one of the most interesting for a long time.
As well as the arrival of a host of new rookies, there have been several important personnel changes and technical changes a plenty to make sure that the column inches of the sporting magazines have been filled over the winter months. We’ll take a look back at some of those now and also bring you up to date with the latest testing results so you can wet your appetite ahead of April 11th.
