Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

himself as quiet and calm. The last time he can remember getting excited was when he won the final race of the year at Catalunya last season. Though Alberto Puig had won at Jerez earlier in the year, he'd suffered a career-threatening injury a few races later and Criville was now the star ascendant. Three-time World Champion Wayne Rainey had seen the early Criville promise when Criville finished ~hird to Rainey and Doohan in only his third 500cc GP at Malaysia in 1992. "He goes home after finishing third on the podium and he has no chance to unwind," said Rainey, a resident of Spain during the racing season. "His status is elevated. It fools with his head." What surprised Rainey the most about Criville is that it took so long for him to learn to ride a 500. "He made a lot of mistakes, over and over and over again. 1I Make no mistake: Though he is the steadiest of the runners-up, he is not a title contender this year and may not be as long as Doohan is at the top of his game. Before Zeltweg, Criville had led a number of the GPs and has stuck tough with Doohan in many others. Yet never did it seem that anyone other than Doohan was in control, and when Criville pressed the issue the results weren't favorable. In Jerez, Criville led into the final corner where the savvy Doohan, who'd been stalking the entire race, moved up the exposed inside line. When Criville tried to counter, he was highsided violently out of a sure second place. That was the race that displayed the Spanish passion for racing. Having led the whole race, the fans were naturally, if you're Spanish, encouraged to storm over the fences and approach the track for the last two laps. On the final lap the fans were actually on the track, thinking, wrongly, that the race was over. For Criville it was. Nearly hitting so many people clearly rattled him and Doohan was there to pounce. A protest was filed by his team to go back to the previous lap, but it was withdrawn, some say under pressure from his teammate Doohan. "1 didn't understand exactly what happened," Criville said. In Assen it nearly went wrong again. Doohan led much of the race with Criville making his bid in the final chicane. Leaving his braking too late, he overshot the corner, had to almost stop, then crossed the line well out of first place. But in Austria the roles were reversed and Doohan was the one doing the chasing and making the rare mistake to cost him the race. "1 tried to keep Alex out but he got under me and because 1 had chosen the wrong front tire it broke away and forced me wide every time 1 tried to get in to corners hard as 1 chased him," Doohan said. "But Alex is thinking as much as me out there on the track these days and he deserved to win." . Criville added: "It was my plan to follow Michael through the race because 1 didn't want to pass him before the penultimate or last lap. 1have got ahead of him earlier in a race before and made a mistake and 1 didn't want to do this again today." And, despite the win, Criville is under no illusions about his place in the realm of the king. "For me, Mick is the best rider. He has a lot of experience," Criville says in broken and heavily accented English. "It's not easy to win with Mick on the track. 1 believe it's possible. 1 believe that 1 can win." Part of that belief is rooted in a change in Doohan's attitude . he's felt that he had to decimate the competition, this year Doohan realized that a win is a win, whether by a minute or a second. So he's content to hang back, save the tires and machinery, put on a better show, and still win with ease. Still, Criville is getting closer and one measure of how Doohan perceives his teammate is that when Criville joined the team the lines of communication were more open than they are now. "Sometimes he helped me with a lot of things before," Criville says. "Now it's normal (that he doesn't). Every track he's riding fast and tries hard. You know very well where he goes fast." Criville's love of the sport began" early. He comes from a motorcycling family - his father rode a Montesa - and he began riding when he was 5 years old. By the time he was 15 he'd begun" racing motocross and trials, but would find his true calling a few years later. "Because I live in a small village it's easy to take my bikes and ride on the streets." He quickly discovered that he was faster than any of I:ti.s friends, and after he fell down a few times he realized it was time to get on a race track. From then on his ambition was set. "I thought to be here (the World Championships)," he said. "Winning races and being World Champion." It only took a few years for him to realize his ambitions. He made his.Grand Prix debut in 1987 riding a Derbi part-time in the 80cc World Championship. The next year he made a full-time move to the GPs and rode the 80cc Derbi to second in the penultimate year of that championship. The next logical move was to the 125cc class. Both of his aspirations, of winning races and a world title, were fulfilled when he won the 125cc World Championship on the JJ Cobas in 1989, scoring five race wins along the way. . Then it was a short step up to the 250cc class where he finished 11 th in 1990 aboard the Marlboro Agostini Yamaha. He was mostly a midpacker, his best finishes a fifth, a sixth and a trio of sevenths. On the less-reliable Cobas-Honda in 1991 he fell back to 13th, again a fifth-place finish his best mark. Years like that don't normally merit a move to the front ranks of the 500cc class, but he ~as able to parlay his popularity in Spain into factory backing and he did it at a time when Spain was looking for a hero. The country has a rich history of GP racing in the smaller classes, but has never had much success in the SOOcc class. The skeletal and taciturn JUah Garriga tried for several years, but never finished higher than sixth in the championship. Sito Pons, who won the 250cc World Championship in 1988 and '89, tried to make the move in 1990, only to finish 10th. The next year he would end up 14th, which accelerated his move to team ownership in 1991. For his inaugural year he would field a Honda 500cc team, supported by Campsa; a Spanish oil company, and he needed a rider. Fellow Spaniard Criville was the man. "The important thing is to be on a 500 when you are very young, 23-24 years old," Criville said. "In this age you can improve a lot," Criville said. Having come from 125s and 250s, which require a completely different technique, more corner speed and different cornering lines, Criville had to make the necessary adjustments. "If you are young you can be able to change this, change the line. It's not easy. It takes a long time. For me, it takes me three years, two to three years." To do it on a ermanent basis maybe. But the,adjustment seemed easier than he thought very early in his first season. When the then 22-year-old Spaniard finished third in the Malaysian GP to Doohan and Rainey his status as a hero in his native country was almost certainly assured. When he won the Dutch TT, the ill-fated race where Doohan broke his leg, Rainey sat out with an injury, and Kevin Schwantz and Eddie Lawson took each other out, his ascendance was nearly complete. And, despite finishing eighth for his rookie year, his future was in many ways set. In 1993 he would s.witch to Marlboro Honda Pons colors and come eighth again, followed by a sixth-pl.ace finish in 1994 on the unbranded works Honda team as a teammate to Mick Doohan and Shinichi Itoh. Word around the paddock was that Criville had promised to bring a sponsorship package to the team, a promise which went unfulfilled at the last minute. That left Honda in a lurch, but instead of jettisoning the Spaniard they stuck with him, though he had his doubts about continuing. "Two years ago I thought maybe it's better to go to 250," he said. But beth he and Honda stuck with it and their reward came when Repsol signed on to sponsor the team in 1995 and again in 1996. Since the 1992 victory he's only won once. That was at the European GP held at the Montmelo circuit near his home outside of Barcelona and it secured his fourth-place finish in the championship. This year, his fifth on the 500, has been his best yet. He's maturing as a rider at a time when there appears to be a vacuum at the top. Kanemoto Honda's Luca Cadalora is frightfully inconsistent. Lucky Strike Suzuki's Daryl Beattie has been injured almost the entire season and his teammate Scott Russell punishes himself in the race by qualifying badly. The Yamaha riders, all four of them, are young and untested and, though Marlboro Roberts Yamaha's Norifumi Abe has a win, he's as least as mercurial as Cadalora. Kenny Roberts Jr. has been coming on strong of late, though he can't be expected to challenge in his first year. The only place where he can whip Criville is on the dirt track at his father's training center. Criville attributes some of his success to the time he spends at the facility which Roberts runs near the Montrnelo circuit in Catalunya. His competition at the track is likely to include both Kenny Roberts, Junior and Senior, Jimmy Filice and Randy Mamola, all racing on the Honda 100cc singles. '1t has helped me in braking, throttle control, controlling the bike. I don't know how much this has helped me, but for sure it's good." Other than that, his training isn't much different from your average racer. He works out in a gym which he owns outside of Barcelona, bicycles and rides motocross. When he's not traveling, he likes to stay at home, leading as normal a life as his fame allows. The only indulgence he's allowed himself is a Ferrari 355, similar to the one that Doohan owns. Honda's faith in Criville was reaffirmed when they recently signed him, along with Doohan, for the 1997 season. They've heard all the rumors about Doohan leaving or retiring or going to Superbikes and believe that the rider of the future is Criville. Unless he falters badly, Criville will certainly finish second in the championship. Though it's a jump of two spots over his previous best, it won't be good enough for 1997 and he knows it.

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