BarcelonaMotorcycles are addictive. The adrenaline rush of speed can be compared to very few things. “The competition, the smell of petrol and getting better every day. I live for that,” confesses Xavi Vierge (Barcelona, 1997), ex-Moto2 pilot who now competes in the World SuperBikes Championship (WorldSBK). To reach the elite, however, many tolls must be paid. “Normally they start too early. Today there is a very high level and everything is so professionalized that if you don’t start very early, you won’t get anywhere. I started at the age of six and there are many of my classmates who already had a motorcycle at the age of three. If mine mother when I was six I already wanted to kill my father, imagine if at three it occurs to buy me a motorcycle. It is true, however, that this is a world in which the sooner you start, the better,” he reflects .
Despite the fact that he didn’t have his first motorcycle until he was six, he fell in love with it at the age of two. “My father liked motorcycles, but the ones that go on the street. When I was two years old, by chance, I saw a motocross competition on TV and until it was over, I did not move from the sofa. That day I ask my parents for a motorcycle. Obviously, they told me no!”, laughs the rider from Barcelona. During the following years, he worked hard, betting on getting good grades to gain points to get his bike. He had it at six, a very small one to start learning how to master it, but the label of novice did not last long, since at the age of nine he already made the jump to professional. “I wanted to jump [referint-se al motocròs]but they gave me the chance to test the speed and I couldn’t say no.”
“everything is dangerous”
“It’s dangerous, obviously, but you can also go out on the street and anything can fall on you or you can be run over. Everything is dangerous. As a parent, I believe that if my child had devotion to something, which is not a whim, the “I’d let it go. It’s very dangerous and if I have kids in the future I’d love for them to do anything but motorcycles, because I know what my parents go through. But in the end if you see that your child wants it so much, you like you can’t rob dad of his dream,” he reflects. Vierge debuted in the Moto2 World Championship in 2015. He continued in the category in 2016 and at the end of the season he was awarded the Rookie de l’Any from Moto2.
Xavi’s body is full of scars. Motorcycles, speed and injuries go hand in hand. From a very young age, they learn that pain is not negotiable and that discomfort or injury will always be there, that they will be more of a constant than an exception. “Pain is part of our job. You get injured and you still don’t know what you have and you’re already thinking when you’re going to come back.” They are made of rubber, admits the pilot, who remembers very few moments when his body was not resented.
A good physical shape is one of the pillars to be able to compete on the bike, but the head is even more decisive. “From the outside, everything is very beautiful, but the reality is not like that. In the World Cup, not everything depends on the rider. Injuries are a constant and they are very delicate moments. There are moments when you think: it’s over, already that’s enough, but we pilots die for this world and in two hours it happens to you”, confesses the Catalan. During his time in the MotoGP World Championship, in the Moto 2 category, he experienced the most dark moments. “I never fully enjoy the moment I’m living. When I was in the small categories, I was already thinking about the bigger ones; when I passed, I already wanted the next step, without savoring what I had just achieved. And I arrive at the World Cup, which it was my dream. There are very good times there, but also very bad times. Obviously it pays off, but it’s hard,” he says.
“The other bikes”
He now competes in “the other bikes”. The WorldSBK Championship is everything that MotoGP has ceased to be. “The fans who come to the circuit have the opportunity to be much closer to the drivers. This for them is brutal. It is a shame that not everyone comes to enjoy this and that they have this World Cup away. If they gave him a chance, I’m pretty sure they’d always come back MotoGP is the top, where everything is exclusive, but in World Superbike we all live normal lives. He is purer, as he has been all his life. It feels like we’ve gone back 20 years and that’s great for the fan.”
