GIVI Magazine - Maggio 2016

ENGLISH TEXT WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE TO GOONHOLIDAY? Honestly I haven’t been on holiday in a long time. Too long. But I stay in Cali- fornia in the winter all the time and we class this a little of a holiday. Sure we live there in the winter. Maybe soon I’ll start to look to go somewhere on a proper holiday for one week or something. DO YOUWATCH THE NEWS? DO YOU FOLLOWTHE POLITICS? Yes and yes. I watch both. When I get up in the morning I always watch the news channel but normally it’s grim to watch the news. DO YOU LIKE READING?WHICH KIND OF MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN? I usually don’t listen to music for some reason. I know music and I listen to it in the car but I don’t have a genre. I like to read, but my books are normally all autobiographies, I like to read about somebody when they are telling me about their life or about their sport or something. WE KNOWYOU HAVE A HOLIDAY HOUSE IN TUSCANY. WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST OF THE ITALIAN CULTURE? FOOD, WEATHER, MUSIC, MO- NUMENTS? Yes we have a house in Tuscany and I love it because I can go cycling everyday in the sun normally. The culture is relaxed which is perfect for me because after a busy race weekend to go home there is nice. It’s a little bit like the Isle of Man in some ways that I feel relaxed. I like the panorama of Tuscany, the small villages. things like this. Of course the food is really good, but I have to be careful not to get fat in Tuscany because you can eat so much all the time. YOU ARE MARRIED TO A LOVELY WIFE: LUCY. IN YOUR OPINION HOW DOES LUCY DEALWITH YOUR JOB? I don’t think it’s so easy to be my wife, but I don’t think it’s so easy to be any rider’s wife and I think I am not too bad in managing the differences between racing and not racing. I feel I can change quite well, I can be in the mood for racing or I can be in the home mood quite easily which is some- times frustrating for Lucy. But she is always supportive, never so hard on me and she knows the job is also what I love. But she doesn’t get so worried I think. I think she doesn’t worry so much, not like you would think. Some people think the wife is going to cry when you are doing 200 mph. I think she thinks I’m in quite good control. DO YOU THINK IT’S GOING TO BE MORE DIFFICULT TO BECOME A DAD OR TO RIDE AMOTORBIKE AT 340KHM/H? I don’t know. I will tell you in July. I don’t intend to slow down at all and I think being a dad will make me faster to provide more for my family. THE MAN THE RIDER LOOKINGBACKNOWHOWWASYOURPATHFROMSTARTINGTORIDE YOUR FIRST BIKE TO NOW INMOTOGP? My path from racing when I was young to now has been very fast to be ho- nest. I was only 14 or 15 still racing the 125 production bike and then I started moving up the classes so fast. In 10 years I passed so many classes, MotoGP is the most amount of time I spent in one place because I went … British Supersport, British Superbike, World Supersport, World Superbike, MotoGP – all in five years. It was fast and difficult, but I enjoyed the challenge, the challenge was cool to me and that’s why I did it. I made some fantastic contracts as well to be able to do it and I got very lucky with Yamaha, honestly, because they gave me the opportunity to do it. I went World Supersport, World Superbike, MotoGP with them and this was fun, it was fun to be able to do, a fun way to have my career. And also I don’t regret any of it, I enjoyed it, but yeah it seemed very fast …it seems not long ago I was racing in World Supersport you know. OF ALL THE YEARS YOU HAVE BEEN RACING, WHO HAS GIVEN YOU THE MOST SUPPORT? I would have to say Lucy because she has been in every race except for Ar- gentina this year, but because of the circumstances that she is pregnant so she didn’t come but in the end she has come to all the others without fail. She just doesn’t come to the test but the tests are busy and boring, especially for her, but she comes and supports me to every race. The other one would be my dad because when I first started racing he obviously funded me to start racing, then after I got good but he continued to come and support me. Givi Magazine May 2016 - Givi Interview  9