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/434045
INTERVIEW 2014 WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPION SYLVAIN GUINTOLI P190 straight-line speed – the new engine thing we said – this was all bullshit. It was all about going in strong and I felt really strong going in there. It worked. It was a lot to do with the attitude. We did have an advantage on the straight, but most of it was because we changed the gearing to make it more efficient with the facing wind. The wind changed direction, so I had really good ac- celeration out of the last turn. The bike was com- ing out of there, picking up really quickly. In top speed if you look at the figures I had about five 3 mph. It was not massive. Last year you raced under Aprilia Racing chief Gigi Dall'Igna, this year a new racing boss in Romano Albesiano. Changes? No changes? The people I worked with in the team, the en- gineers, the guys who work on my bike – and the bike – remained quite similar. The guys who worked on my engine back in Noale; these were the same guys. This machine is a really well oiled one and had been oiled for a few years, so it was really working. It was always going to work, but obviously Romano did a good job as well, because we won. But the heritage that Gigi left was a strong one. Gigi and Romano are different characters. Gigi is really involved with the technical side as he is an engineer by background, so yes, we used to have more arguments with Gigi about what I needed and wanted on the bike. But then again the other engineers that worked on the bike, like Paolo, they used to have those argu- ments in 2013 with me and he carried on in 2014. So there was a heritage left. You had some injuries along the way, particularly your leg injury after you joined British Superbike when another rider hit you from behind. Did you ever think about stopping, with your foot facing backwards for a time after that crash? I don't know if it was like the morphine effects, but I did think I remember a few days later lying there thinking, "Bloody hell, I do not want to do that anymore." Because that was not my fault and it just happened out of nowhere, it wasn't even racing. I thought, "what's the point?" If you are going to get battered like that? Yes, I had those feelings. You had kids by that point, so did that make any difference? No, that does not really affect anything because I love racing bikes and if I were not racing bikes I would not be who I am. This never really affected anything. It was more on a personal level, thinking, "is this really it…?" But when the morphine kicked out again we sat down and made a plan to recover and get going again. That was probably the only time where I thought, "That's a bit much." But it was a really bad injury. I did not really know how I would come back either for a while. I was back on a bike a month and half later, mind you, practicing at Cadwell Park in England. I remember going round there with Jack Valentine (team manager) and I did the jump. The leg did not really like that bit. That was the only moment it was a bit hard, but then you learn to get back on your feet and focus on recovery. Is it weird for you to have won the champi- onship on the Aprilia, leave for another manu- facturer because of Aprilia's World Superbike uncertainty, and then see the RSV-4 still flying around? With factory engineers still behind it - but you not on it anymore? As Aprilia switched its focus to MotoGP, Guintoli said goodbye to Aprilia and looks forward to the challenge at Honda.