Aleix Espargaró Villà (Granollers, 34 years old) announced this Thursday in Montmeló, a few kilometers from where he grew up and became fond of motorcycles, that he will retire from competition at the end of this season. The Aprilia veteran, who is just a few races away from becoming the second rider with the most participations in MotoGP, only behind Valentino Rossi, puts an end to a true marathoner’s career, which took him almost two decades to complete. achieve his first victory.
The Catalan will retire with 20 years of experience behind him and 341 grand prix contested if he does not suffer any serious setbacks between now and the end of the year. His hope is to add a little more to his record of World Cup victories, which for now is three, although he has always said that he would not change anything about his twisted path within the elite. The first success of Espargaró, Pol’s older brother, did not come until the 2022 Argentine GP, a triumph that unleashed the best version of him at the twilight of his career. The banner of Aprilia’s ambitious project, nicknamed Il Capitano inside the garage after eight years building the brand’s winning motorcycle, has accumulated its best results since then: in total, more wins (three), podiums (nine), pole positions (three ) and fast laps (four) that add up to the rest of his career, including the small categories.
Lanky, quite tall by the standards of elite motorcycling, the eldest Espargaró always occupied a secondary space, away from the spotlight, until this last stage. His adventure in the premier category started with Pramac, a Ducati satellite, and took him through the private structures of Aprilia and Yamaha until his first opportunity with an official team in Suzuki. When the Japanese decided not to renew him, he returned to the Noale brand, clinging to what at that time already seemed like the last train of his career, highlighting his great assets in the category: his extensive experience and spirit of real hard worker. “The career he has had is one that many would like for themselves,” his brother Pol, who retired last year, tells EL PAÍS.
Seeing him so happy in his new stage has been one of the keys to this step alongside Aleix. Also the definitive emergence of Maverick Viñales, his protection within the Italian factory. “I know that you have thought about it a lot, and that not seeing yourself at the top has been an important factor, it has been an internal, very thoughtful process. This completely changes your pace of life, you go from going 100 per hour to 20. The risk, the falls, and even more so when you have a family like in our case, make it a complicated sport, and once outside you see everything with a very different perspective,” emphasizes the youngest of the family.
Always willing to answer any question forcefully and honestly and to say his own in all controversies, Espargaró was also one of the most combative pilots when it came to fighting for the safety of his teammates on the track, defending tooth and nail. any request to the championship leaders. “In an army he would have been at least a colonel,” Massimo Rivola, head of the Italian project, praised him at the time. His devotion to physical preparation and nutrition, which comes from his passion for cycling, which is even greater than motorcycles, has also made a statement within the paddock in recent years.
Far from the children
Espargaró made his debut as a guest in the last grand prix of 2004 in 125cc, finishing 24th on a podium occupied by Héctor Barbera, Andrea Dovizioso and Álvaro Bautista. The latter, two-time Superbike world champion, is the only one on that grid who is still active. Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner, other drivers present that day, have long since hung up their overalls. More than once the Catalan considered this goodbye that is coming now, hit by severe injuries, the doubts of more than one team and the vicissitudes of building a family. “Since my children were born, what has been most difficult for me is being on the road. If you have to be away from them, it has to be worth it. If you are not happy, none of that makes sense,” he said some time ago in an interview with EL PAÍS. His wife Laura, and little Max and Mia, twins, have been his great escape route to manage the enormous pressure of his work at 300 per hour.
At the Catalunya GP, Espargaró keeps some of his best memories on two wheels. In 2011 he achieved his first podium in his home garden, and last year he signed his last victory so far, Aprilia’s first double in MotoGP with his colleague Maverick Viñales. “Look where you were and look where we were,” he said to the man from Roses, full of joy. Here he also starred in one of the cruelest moments of his career, when he lost the podium by getting confused on the last lap and stopping accelerating prematurely over the finish line.
The great legacy of the native of Granollers, stubborn and persistent like few others, the only one who always believed in himself along with his parents and his brother, will be the great work carried out in returning the Noale factory to the top of the world. motorcycling in this last stage of his career. Also, as several of his colleagues in Montmeló indicated, his insistence on working as hard as possible when projects did not give good results.
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2024-05-23 14:10:27
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