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/295587
IN THE WIND P20 EDWARDS TO RETIRE D ays before the start of the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas in his home state of Texas, Colin Edwards had told a French journalist he was ready to carry on racing for 10 more years. "I was just bullsh*tting you," he laughed, at the pre-race confer- ence at his home GP in Austin on Thursday. "If I'd told you, you'd have told everybody." Instead, the two-time World Su- perbike Champion and MotoGP veteran chose to announce his retirement in public, and flanked by former teammate Valentino Rossi and new class nemesis Marc Marquez on one side, and the latest U.S. rider Josh Herrin on the other. Edwards at times looked close to the customary tears at such occasions, but also laughed a lot: an element of his character that will be sadly missed in the increasingly sterile world of mod- ern MotoGP. Edwards said he would give his all this season, but that "2014 will be my last year of racing motor- cycles." He turned 40 in February, and spoke warmly of how he looked forward to spending more time with "my lovely wife, Alyssia" and three children. His whole life had been rac- ing, he said. "I've been in Eu- rope since 1995, getting my ass kicked by young bastards like this [gesturing at Marquez]." The decision had been prompted, he explained, during pre-season testing with the new bikes and tires, and "I didn't see the improvement I wanted to see. I need to change my riding style but – hell, I'm 40 years old and trying to change my style to make the bike work wasn't working." Aside from the difficulty of con- scious re-learning, "as soon as you get into an intense moment you go back to your instinct." Edwards named his best race as from the Superbike era, in a nail-biting last-round victory over Troy Bayliss at Imola in 2002, winning him his second world title in the category. He didn't need to mention his biggest disappointment: crashing in the last corner while leading at Assen in 2006, handing what would have been his only GP win to Nicky Hayden. Nonetheless, he can look back on a long and distinguished GP career, with 12 podium finishes, including five second places, and a best of fourth overall in 2005. By then he was riding a Yamaha as teammate to Rossi, after starting his career in 2003 on the unruly Aprilia Cube, then switching to Honda in 2004. Rossi paid a warm if unremark- able tribute to his former team- mate and "one of my best friends in the paddock;" Nicky Hayden suggested, "I hope he takes it easy for the rest of the year, to make it easier for the rest of us;" PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE Colin Edwards and his wife Alyssia honor the National Anthem at the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Edwards has announced that 2014 will be his final season of racing.