Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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INTERVIEW 2014 WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPION SYLVAIN GUINTOLI P188 Champion with them in early 2000s on a 250. It was all about the Italian dream team thing, he was going to smash it. Whereas for me it was not easy beating him because he is a very fast rider. In the end, in the championship I was like 80 points in front of him. For me this is a big achievement. We had the same bike and from the start we had ac- cess to the same stuff, so I just beat him fair and square. This is really satisfying. There was a big sit-down inside the team after Misano and pre-race at Sepang, to work out how to improve the bike. But was that just for Marco or for both of you? We did all work together, like always in Aprilia, because everything is open. When he struggled at the start of the year he was looking at what I was doing and I was keeping an eye on what he was doing. I think for the team on the technical side it was good that he was there, because at the start of the year they tried very different approaches. Some of it was good so I was able to use that. Especially towards the end of the year. This in- creased my performance so yes, in that respect he brought something to the team – but we both brought something to the team and helped each other. Kawasaki and Sykes were marching away at one time and looked like he and the Kawasaki package had the edge. Did it feel like that? Tom and Kawasaki were so strong, especially on the small tracks. In the big picture of it, at the small tracks we had to take as many points as we could and suffer the damage. But once they were on the back foot there was no stopping us. We felt good and even at the small tracks at the end of the season, like Jerez, it felt really good. There were quite a lot of wet races this year, and you love the wet. That was not a bad thing for you, but not in Portimao and As- sen? "I know there were a lot of people doubting it. I think after Magny Cours a lot of people, even my mates, they were thinking, 'Yeah, I would like him to win,' but I think nobody thought I had it in me to go and do that. That makes it even more satisfying because I proved everybody wrong. But first I had to prove it to myself." We had four races in the wet and in Assen I fell off. I just got surprised and lost grip and it just went from underneath me. Probably because I got a bit greedy. In Assen on the wet I had a really good pace and I should have been a bit more patient. It was in the balance then, and in Portimao as well. But it doesn't matter now. If you did not get the points from those two wet races where you crashed and then remounted, you would not have been world Trading places – Leon Haslam (left) and Guintoli (right) swap rides.