Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128244
him to test tires , he went. If Aprilia needed him for PR, he was there. When there were part s to test, however small , he saddled up. "I'd done Superbike forever, bu t , sh it, we had two, m ay be thr ee tests throughout the yea r fro m the start of the season to th e end of the season ," he sai d. " A nd th is year .we we re testin g every single race . We would rac e then we would test, then we wo u ld race , then we wo uld ce rne d abo ut that. I was nowhere near the li mit, but the front never moved. It was incred ible. It felt really good, really co mforta ble. It actually felt slower than the A p rilia bec au se the A prilia always wanted to loop ou t. T his th ing would barely wheelie. It was a lot like going from the RC4 5 to the twin IRC5Ij . Same th ing - you can j ust concent rate on wh ere you 're going: Edwards wa nte d to keep his lo ng-time crew ch ief, Adrien Gorst, b ut Gresin i didn 't have a place for h im . "A s far as dis rupti ng that or making waves to real ly push ha rd , I didn't feel it was goi ng to ha p pe n when I first kind of aske d. So I didn 't po und it as hard as, say, I could have. I didn 't want to d isrupt his flow . He's got a good k arma over there, and every - test. We would race , in d am n J erez an d a day later testing in Barce lona. So it's 100 0 kms I had t o driv e in a day . T hen we wo u ld go to Le Mans or As sen and th en dr iv e to Cl ermont-Ferrand and do a test for M iche li n .. . go to fr igging wherever. It through fin ancial di fficulti es, and word wa s th at it was pulling o ut o f ra cing in 2004 , a rumor which was ca tegorically den ied by team m anag er Jan Witteveen. T here were also rumors tha t A lice, th e It alian phone co m pa ny t hat sponsored th e Ap ril i a MotoGP tea m , w as lea vi ng. "I ca n' t fa ult A p rilia in any way. T h ey 've bee n awesome," Ed wa rds sa ys. " A s s o~>n I c ame here, everybody was like, 'I don 't k no w if th ey got money to pay . J ust be care ful. ' Th ey ' ve been aw esome; th ey 're gr eat. Eve ry paych ec k 's come on schedule, invoices for expe nse s. I m ean , eve rythi ng's been aweso me. T here's b een abso lu te ly no probl ems there, and they' re a st rai g ht -up compa ny as far as dea ling with you perso nally . I don't kn ow abo ut sponsors o r any of that. T hey do all of that o n th e o the r side, and m y side 's been pe rfect: Th e t ruth is th at A p r i l ia was a l ifeboat f or Edwards after he co ul dn' t reach a dea l with Honda. Hav ing ju st han d ed th e l att er a seco n d W orld Superbike t itle sho uld hav e be en a ti ck et to rid e. But HRC had other plans . Its offe r was an RC-211V, but on Bridgestone tires, a rid e eventuall y tak en by Ma koto Tamada. Edwa rds , a longtime M ich elin m an and it s most prolific t este r, di dn' t wa nt to switch rubber . " We d idn't leave o n bad terms," Edwards sai d of th e sp lit wi th Ho nda. " O bvio usly , I was up set th at th ey d idn 't have a p lac e for m e to go. When Ni cky [Ha yd en] go t the [Reps o l Hond a] ride , o bviously I sai d, ' What the he ll?'" Soon afte r Ha yd en got th e ri de , a senior mem be r of HRC Europe explained how it had co me about, Edward s related , "how Ho nda U.S. basically did the dea l w ithout HRC knowing . Sent them a fax saying now yo u have to sign h im. They also use the term t hat 'I've been sucking the wrong d %$k all the se yea rs.' I was going stra ight to th e top , and I sho uld've been worried about the Ho nda guys in the U.S. It was explained to me in a way that they basi cally sai d we had no option. W e co uldn't do anything . I h ad n ever , o n the w eb site or intervi ew s, nev er said a ba d word abo ut all this. Simp ly stated the facts, wh at had happened , and eve rybody else m ade their ow n co ncl usio n, wh at to thi nk." Racin g a Superbike turne d o ut to be little like GP li fe. Th e sc hedule w a s brutal because Ed wa rds , being Edwards, d id n 't say no. If Michelin needed bod y gets along . " Asked wha t he exp ects fo r 2004 , th e answer co mes back, " I expec t to w in : It's po inted o ut that he expect ed to win thi s year. "The p rob lem was, being m e, I'm used to winning , and being m entall y tough , you j ust th ink th ere' s no o bs tac le th at ca n ge t in yo ur w ay ," Edwa rd s sa id. w as j ust way too m uc h. " Th e b ab y d idn 't m ind l i f e in the motorhom e. " She was cool: Ed wa rds says. But out of th e three-month European summer, he had four or fi ve da ys off. " I rem ember I'd gone a sol id m on th and a ha lf and d idn ' t hav e on e da y o ff ," he sai d. " Not o n e da y . Every da y wa s boo k ed , Compl etely solid. T wo da ys driving, two day s test ing , two te sting , t wo da ys PR, tw o day s m ore d riving to here, three days racing , two d ays driving, testing. It' d always been so much fun driving the mo torhome . That was part o f it. Yo u come over here, load up and go cross cou ntry. A p art from looki ng at th e sched ule , once yo u actua lly g et here, th en all of a sudd en there's a test. T he PR stuff yo u don 't k now abo ut until the week be fore. You got to be here. You got to be th ere. It was ju st fl at o ut : Wh ich wouldn 't h ave bee n so bad if the res u lts were forthcoming o r if th ere was significant progress, but th ere wasn't. A cla use in Edward s' co ntract allowe d him o r A prili a t o t erm in at e th e cont rac t. Co ns ide ri ng the ir fi nanc ia l co nce rns, April ia wa s prob ably h app y to re p l ace hi s sa lary w ith t he fa r sma lle r pa ckage o f fe re d t o Englishman Shan e B yrn e , th e Br itish Superbike Champi on . By th e middle of th e seas o n Edwards had feelers out to th e Gresini team. He ke pt it lo w-key , denying he was making a m ove but k now ing it was a poss i b ilit y . A s the season wo un d down an d t he resu lts d id n't improve, the p ac e picked u p. B efo re lo n g, Edwards was back at Ho nda. The co m pany li ne is th at there w ill be six fact ory b ik es next yea r , all eq ual, th ough th e number-one Repsol Ho nda rid er , in this c ase Ni ck y Hayden , w ill get the development parts first. "I th ink it's been pr oven this ye ar th at it doesn 't really make that big a difference, " Edwar ds said . In his first ride on the RC-21IV, a few days after the final GP of the year, Edwards lapped the Ce t alun ya circuit in 1:4 5 .3 , a 10th of a second quicker tha n what Val entino Ross i had turned during the Grand Prix . He hasn't stopped grinning since. At the ti me he to ld Cycle News : " It was awesome. I got so accustomed to the April ia and th e way it works, I forgot wh at last year's bi k e felt like. Everyth ing o n th at thi ng [the RC2 1 I V] is so sano; every thing is in th e right plac e. It' s hard to de scribe . It' s like wh en yo u o pe n that new toy and take it out o f the bo x , and everythi ng's perfect. It w as the firs t ti me in four yea rs that I'd used a 17 -i nc h front tire, so I was a bit con- cue "This year was bas ically proven to m e th at yo u c an believ e all you wa nt , bu t sometimes it's ju st not pos sible: Hav ing b een i n the p a d d o c k fo r a yea r , he 's adj uste d . He hangs out with ol d fri ends and rivals lik e K enny Rob erts Jr. and Troy Ba yli ss and their wiv es. Wh en he came to Valenci a at th e end of 2002, the p addock was w arm, welc omi ng ... deceptive. "We ca me to th is race last year, an d I wa s like, 'Ma n, eve rybody's so fr iend ly , and eve ry body's so nice.' Bu t it's the last rac e. It's the same this weekend. E v e ry b o d y ' s like, 'Hey , you wa nt a co ff ee ? Com e in and have an ice c ream co ne . We got stock. Come get it.' It's been awesome. I get alo ng w ith eve ry body . The fl eetin g mom en t s yo u hav e with K enn y Rob erts S r. a nd yo u see Mi c k [D o ohan] aro und . A c o uple o f the gu ys w ho o bvi ously have l ot s of h i st or y behind th em . Y o u c he ri sh th ose m om ents j ust bec au se th ey are who they are. I th ink it wou ld be easy t o co m e here and not look at the big pi cture. I' ve gro wn up always looking at the big pi c ture. Wh en you c an see that , it' s fun." More fun is fatherhoo d. Edwards and wife Alysha ha d th eir fir st child Graci e, and alm ost im medi at ely th ey were on th e road . " It's aweso me. It' s so co o l," he says. " I don 't know how to exp lai n it. I wanted to ha ve k id s wh en I was 20 , 2 1, so I could grow up wit h th em. Then Europe happen ed , and we go t bus y and all this shit. Now I w ish we wo uld have started a littl e ea rl ier. " It's funny bec ause everybody says th e saying , 'Yo u ge t ma rri ed , yo u lo se ha lf a second . You ' have ki ds, yo u lose another ha lf a second per k id o r some shi t li k e tha t.' I got married, wo n the cha m p io nshi p the next ye ar. Obv iousl y , I di dn 't lo se an y t im e. I always thoug ht the re were two stages of life - before k ids and after ki ds . And now I look at it as , I got eve ry thing I' ve always wanted. Now's the ti me to hit it if there ever was a ti me. Is he going to have more? " Hell, yeah! I'm going to have a whole litter. I' m shooting fo r four, A lys ha' s shooting fo r t wo, so we might in the m idd le w ith th ree ." Edwa r ds h ad al wa y s t hough t he'd r e tir e by th e tim e he was 32 , j ust th ree m ore sea so ns. B ut the m ove to GPs has re-energized him, and the move t o Ho nda has added anoth er di me ns io n. Th e cl oser h e ge ts , th e m or e he w ants to keep goi ng. Now that he has the too ls, he could stay on to p for years to co me . I e CN n e _ s • D EC EMBER 1 0, 2003 23