Histoic Win

18 April 2004, in Welkom, the young city located in South Africa, I won my very first race with Yamaha -- a day which will long live in the history of motorcycle racing.

You know the others are looking to make excuses when they say you beat them just because the bike was better........ at the end of 2003, after winning everything in sight the Honda, I was certain I could win with another bike.

I remember well the conventional wisdom among the riders : "If you want to win, you need a Honda."........... I remember all those who insisted that leaving Honda for Yamaha was crazy, a hopeless choice, an impossible challenge with no chance of success. And I also remember what the engineers told me. They insisted that a great racing department, like Honda's, could create and develop an expectional bike even without input from the rider.

Everybody said that in 2004 I would rack up a series of disappointments with Yamaha..... A friend of mine told me that, Gibernau, who was watching footage of me laughing on a video monitor and said, " You'll see, next year when he's on Yamaha and the bike is slipping all over the place and he's landing his rear end, he won't be laughing quite so much."

I had left Honda and gone to Yamaha, in search of new challenges. I was determined to prove that I could win even without a bike, the Honda. That wasn't just about winning another title, it was about resentment and pride, rancour and honour.

That's why that first race at Welkom(South Africa) was the most important of my career. Because it was my first with Yamaha.
Because I battled until th last turn with Biaggi.
Because I had proved what I had set out to prove : the importance of man over machine, how important human input and sensitivity are to the development of a racing bike, to its tuning, to its performance in a race.
That's what it was all about and my win at Welkom confirmed this.


.....You may have seen me stop at the edge of the track, getting off my beautiful Yamaha, and watched as I sat down next to her, wrapping my arms around my knees and lowering my head. You may have wondered what I was doing, perhaps you thought I was overcome with emotion and was having a quiet sob of relief. In fact, I wasn't. Not at all. Behind my black visor, I was laughing. Laughing heartily at that. In that moment, huddled next to my bike on the grass, resting against her tyres, just me and my Yamaha, I was laughing. Laughing because of the incredible feeling of pride, relief and happiness which had overcome me......