VOL. 51 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 16, 2014 P191
For me, in the end when I
made the decision to go to Hon-
da I was still not World Champi-
on, and there was no guarantee
I would do it. But looking back
now I think it is going to be a
great challenge to attack the title
again with a different manufac-
turer, and a different team. With
the new rule changes there are
going to be quite a lot of sur-
prises. The Honda sounds like
it won't change much compared
to some other bikes. My new
team has so much experience in
set-up and with different riders.
I had a cracking time with the guys at Aprilia. We
got on really well and what we have done together
is there, and it has been shared with them now.
We need to move on.
How do you get on with Tom Sykes now?
It seemed very civilized after the title was de-
cided?
We are good. Of course like everybody,
when you lose it and lose it that way, you
have got to be pissed off. Which
is normal. I would be massively
pissed off. But he was a sports-
man. He came and congratulat-
ed me and he said the truth. He
said well done, you rode better
and basically that I had made his
life hard for the last few months.
That is where it is at.
For me beating him gives me
more credit to the title. It is not
like I just took it from anybody.
He was the World Champion, he
was strong, and he did not make
any mistakes all year. It was re-
ally hard to go and get him. He made it really hard
for me, he is a great rider and I think we are both
looking forward to fighting again this year. It should
be a very interesting year with so many riders mov-
ing around. CN
Long before his
World Superbike
days, Guintoli
cut his teeth in
the Grand Prix
paddock.
"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."
