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/1542014
P76 FEATURE I 2025 CYCLE NEWS RIDER OF THE YEAR: MARC MARQUEZ Then consider the Austin grid debacle. Marquez necessitated a restart by run- ning from his bike two minutes before the warmup lap was due to start. This not only showed he was thinking one step ahead of the others, and planning actions that no one else would even dream of, but showed that his rivals would also blindly follow whatever he did. How's that for a kind of domination? "Marc is on an amazing level now," commented Aleix Espargaro in April. "Everyone is saying he's faster than ever—apart from that, the way that he analyzes the races, controlling the races, the way he's approaching the weekends, the way he's enjoying everything… he's a monster. He's unbeatable right now. Quite simply, Marquez put his money where his mouth was to start 2025 in pole position. It was all worthwhile in the end. There were times during 2025 when it was tempting to think he was rid- ing better than ever. Success in June's Italian Grand Prix showed that none of his rivals could realistically outrace him this term, even at what had been bogey tracks in years gone by. Sprint and Sunday victories at Ara - gon, Mugello, the Sachsenring, Brno, the Red Bull Ring and Balaton Park during an all-conquering summer period were achieved with so much in reserve, there was a genuine concern he may not be beaten again before the season was out. It all appeared effortless. But in reality, Marquez was grafting as hard as ever behind the scenes. One example came after the French Grand Prix when Fermin Aldeguer, the rider who replaced him at Gresini Ducati, took a debut podi - um in wet conditions. Interested in, and mildly concerned by, the rookie's speed, Marquez was soon in touch with his old crew to understand what the 20-year-old was doing differently from the rest. Any doubts as to whether Marquez would settle in the factory Ducati team, with whom he had been locked in a thorny rivalry from 2017 to 2022, were banished as early as round one. His charm and charisma instantly had engi - neers on both sides of the box rooting for him, something that clearly destabi- lized teammate Pecco Bagnaia. "The first thing that impressed me about Marc is the guy, the boy, much more than the rider and the professional person," said team manager Davide Tar- dozzi during the Valencia test. "I think that the humanity, the way he leads his group, how he works with his engineers and his mechanics is something that honestly, I never saw before, and I think that this is one of his best skills." Marc is embraced by brother Alex after clinching his ninth World Championship and seventh in MotoGP. "People only see 10 percent of Marc's comeback on the TV," Alex said. "I had the honor to see all of that comeback firsthand."