Report: Two-week holidays

Two-week holidays
Repsol riders tell us what they’ve planned for their days off, analyse the past GPs and the second half of the season
VALENTINO ROSSIWhat plans do you have for your summer holidays? ‘I want to relax, keep away from motorbikes and have a good time with my friends in some quite, sunny place.’Do holidays mean absolute inactivity or do you continue your physical training? ‘Holidays never mean doing absolutely nothing to me. I’ll probably swim, walk and keep myself active in general.’Perspectives for the second half of the season? ‘As I already mentioned at the beginning, this is going to be a hard year. We started last season with a big advantage and it took the other riders some time to catch up with us. I already knew that this season it would be very important to score and to get podium finishes as often as possible. We’ve managed to do so and we’ll have to keep on doing it to stay in the lead.’Which riders do you think are going to be your main rivals? ‘Those who are already the fastest: Gibernau, Biaggi and Capirossi.’How would you sum up the first half of the season? ‘The worst of this year was Kato’s accident and what happened later was a big shock. The good side has been the competition as such; I enjoy racing and this season we’ve had several interesting battles on the track.’NICKY HAYDENWhat plans do you have for your summer holidays? ‘I won’t have holidays as such, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll be racing at the Suzuka Eight Hours in August for the first time in my life. I have never taken part in that race and I’m really looking forward to it.’Do holidays mean absolute inactivity or do you continue your physical training? ‘I’m planning to continue training hard and keep focussed. It isn’t time to relax. The second half of the year is very important to me.’Perspectives for the second half of the season? ‘I want to keep on moving forward and get on the podium before the end of the year. I know it’s not going to be easy, but that’s my aim. I also want to learn as much as possible during the process.’Which riders do you think are going to be your main rivals? ‘I think that the best of MotoGP is the level of competitiveness and obviously, Valentino who sets the pace. But any rider having a good day is somebody difficult to beat.’How would you sum up the first half of the season? ‘The first half of the year hasn’t been easy for me, but I’ve learned a lot and I think that difficulties have made me want more. But I’ve enjoyed a lot despite everything. Now I know which aspects I have to work on deeper, and therefore I consider everything done so far as a positive experience.’FONSI NIETOWhat plans do you have for your summer holidays? ‘This year, the calendar leaves us two weeks to rest before Brno, so it’s not going to be a long rest. I’ll probably spend some days in Ibiza with my family but I don’t want to lower the guard too much because this is a very important moment of the season. We have to keep on working mentally and prepare the second half of the season.’Do holidays mean absolute inactivity or do you continue your physical training? ‘The physical training program never stops, although the sessions are lighter in order to rest.’Perspectives for the second half of the season? ‘I hope things are going to work out better than in the first half of the season, because it hasn’t been that good, and I also hope to be able to fight for the title at the end of the season.Which riders do you think are going to be your main rivals? ‘I think that in addition to Poggiali, who is leading the standings, we’ll have to consider De Puniet, Elias, Rolfo and other riders that make things harder for us.’How would you sum up the first half of the season? ‘Weighing up, the result isn’t very good but we have to keep on like this, fighting hard and focussed on our aim, repeating races like the one in Donington.’TONI ELIASWhat plans do you have for your summer holidays? ‘I haven’t planned anything, so I’ll be improvising. Maybe I’ll spend some days in Santander, then some days in Ibiza and finally some days at home, resting and going out with my friends to disconnect. We haven’t got much time left before Brno, so the main thing I want to do is to rest.’Do holidays mean absolute inactivity or do you continue your physical training? ‘I’ll stop completely some days to rest and recover. Then I’ll turn back to activity to prepare the Brno race.’Perspectives for the second half of the season? ‘I think that our aim for the second half of the season is to be more regular than what we’ve been until now, to find the setting I need to feel comfortable on the bike and I obviously hope to be more in the front in the remaining races.’Which riders do you think are going to be your main rivals? ‘There are four or five riders that will be the strongest, as they’ve already shown in the first half of the season: Fonsi, Poggiali, Rolfo, Porto and De Puniet.’How would you sum up the first half of the season? ‘Not very good. The positive side is that we won two races but we’ve had too many problems that hindered us from getting good results and being regular.’JOAN OLIVEWhat plans do you have for your summer holidays? ‘Above all I want to rest and disconnect some days. I guess I’m going to spend one week at the beach and then I’ll start thinking about the race in Brno. The plan is to disconnect the first week and get back to activity the second one.’Do holidays mean absolute inactivity or do you continue your physical training? ‘I’ll only be resting the first week, so I’m not going to do any physical training. But I’ll get back to activity the second one, light activity, because there’s still almost half of the season left and it’s easy to wear oneself out with too much physical training in summer.’Perspectives for the second half of the season? ‘We have to follow the same line we’ve been following until now, working to the limit during the practices in order to prepare the races well. I really think that we’re able to make a good second half of the season.’Which riders do you think are going to be your main rivals? ‘I hope to be fighting with Guintoli and West, two riders that have made a great first half of the season.’How would you sum up the first half of the season? ‘In general lines we can say that I’ve made a positive first half of the season, especially taking into account that this is my rookie season in this class and also the first time I ride an Aprilia.’HECTOR FAUBELWhat plans do you have for your summer holidays? ‘I don’t feel like going too far away from home so I’ve agreed with Héctor Barberá to go together to the beach and spend some days there, probably in Benidorm or Cullera.’Do holidays mean absolute inactivity or do you continue your physical training? ‘This year we only have two weeks before Brno, so we cannot leave physical training aside because we would arrive at the Czech Republic without the necessary rhythm. So we’ll be doing some work-out to stay fit but with some breaks to be fresh for start of the second half of the season.’Perspectives for the second half of the season? ‘Mainly to improve the set-up of our bike, because we’re having several problems and that hinders us from getting better results. But I’m optimistic because we probably found the main reason for the problems in Donington and I think that from now on everything should be getting better for us.’Which riders do you think are going to be your main rivals? ‘Once the problems are over, in this second half of the season, we should be riding with the riders that haven’t got factory bikes or only half factory bikes such as Guintoli, West, Battaini…’How would you sum up the first half of the season? ‘I’m not very happy because since I hadn’t been able to find the right setting for the suspensions I haven’t been able to get the results I know I can get.’SEBASTIAN PORTOWhat plans do you have for your summer holidays? ‘Above all, resting. I’m going back home for a couple of days because I haven’t been there for more than two months and I want to be with my family and friends. It’s winter over there and the truth is that I prefer that kind of weather to continue with the physical training and be fit for the second half of the season. What I need is to disconnect a bit from motorbikes, races and working weekends.’Do holidays mean absolute inactivity or do you continue your physical training? ‘I’ll continue with my training plan, that’s something I don’t want to give up. Since I don’t have to get back on the bike until Brno, the sessions are going to be lighter but without relaxing too much.’Perspectives for the second half of the season? ‘I think that the perspectives are good, the first half hasn’t been bad and I think that we’re going to improve a lot in the second. I only hope for a little more luck to be able to get on the podium and achieve a victory.’Which riders do you think are going to be your main rivals? ‘Basically the same as during the first half, i.e. the Aprilia riders, that have already shown their lead: Nieto, Elias, Poggiali, De Puniet and Rolfo as well, although I think that right now the Aprilia riders have an advantage over both of us.’How would you sum up the first half of the season? ‘We’ve had a bit of everything, but I always try to look at the bright side. Some races have been complicated and we’ve been through tough moments, but we still have the same excitement; I only hope for a little bit of luck.’DANI PEDROSAWhat plans do you have for your summer holidays? ‘My priority is to rest and have fun, because the second half of the season is going to be hard and I’ll need to be fresh. I guess I’m going to spend some days with my family and friends.’Do holidays mean absolute inactivity or do you continue your physical training? ‘I’ll spend the first few days resting, with no physical preparation, but as soon as the person in charge of these things decides that it’s time to restart the training I’ll get back to activity, before the Brno race.’Perspectives for the second half of the season? ‘We’ll have to follow the same dynamics of the first half, i.e. to score in every race and to finish as much in the front as possible.’Which riders do you think are going to be your main rivals? ‘I think that now it’s beginning to be clear who is going to be in the fight for the title at the end of the season: Perugini, Cecchinello, Jenkner and probably somebody else. There are several riders with a chance to win a race, such as Pablo Nieto, Héctor Barberá, De Angelis, Stoner…’How would you sum up the first half of the season? ‘It’s been very important to score a lot of points during the first half because it allows us to be in a good position in the overall standings. We had a fiasco in Britain, but we’ve scored in all the other races and that’s important with regard to the Championship.’PABLO NIETOWhat plans do you have for your summer holidays? ‘I’ve planned to spend some days in Ibiza with my family and the rest of the holidays training in Madrid.’Do holidays mean absolute inactivity or do you continue your physical training? ‘No, I don’t think it’s good to stop completely. I prefer to slow down but doing some sports even if it’s lighter. It’s always good to do sports.’Perspectives for the second half of the season? ‘I think that the perspectives for the second half of the season are very good. The first half hasn’t been spectacular but you could define it as good because we’ve achieved some podium finishes.’Which riders do you think are going to be your main rivals? ‘I think that they are going to be the same as in the first half, Pedrosa, Jenkner, Cecchinello, Barberá and other riders, because there are several riders with possibilities in the 125cc class.’How would you sum up the first half of the season? ‘Well, we’ve achieved some podium finishes and we’ve been able to prove that we have a good competitive level. The only thing missing is a victory, but I trust that it will arrive as well.’HECTOR BARBERAWhat plans do you have for your summer holidays? ‘I’ll probably spend some days at the beach with Héctor Faubel, not far away from home, maybe in Benidorm or Cullera, to rest, lay in the sun and have a bit of fun. My cell pone will be off those days and I’ll try to leave all worries aside.’Do holidays mean absolute inactivity or do you continue your physical training? ‘I’ll continue with my physical training program, but slowing down the rhythm. The second half of the season is long and the body needs to have a break some times.’Perspectives for the second half of the season? ‘Trying to finish the races as good as possible in order to improve my position in the overall standings. The truth is that I consider it possible to finish among the top five.’Which riders do you think are going to be your main rivals? ‘I think that the riders who will be fighting to win races are going to be Dovizioso, Pedrosa, Pablo Nieto, Jenkner, Perugini, Cecchinello… There is a group of about eight riders that are able to win a race because the 125cc class has always been very open to surprises.’How would you sum up the first half of the season? ‘The beginning of the season has been quite bad from my point of view, but I can be happy despite everything because we managed to take a podium finish and a victory.’