The three-time Australian Superbike champion with Ducati, guest at the Sport Festival: “I have always believed in myself, it has been my strength. And how beautiful is the love of the fans”
by the correspondent Paolo Ianieri
– trento
“There still seems to be someone who remembers me.” Troy Bayliss smiles happily between one autograph and the next, overwhelmed by the affection of the fans who, no, have not forgotten that phenomenal number 21 that on the Ducati has made millions of fans dream all over the world. The three-time Superbike champion (2001,2006 and 2008) flew from Australia to not miss the appointment with the Sport Festival, telling the fans about the emotions of an extraordinary career. “I rode when I was a child, I knew I was fast, it was a question of having the right opportunity, but I have always believed in it”. That opportunity came in 2000, when Troy was already 31 years old: the first call from Ducati to replace Carl Fogarty who had been injured was a surprise, as was the second for the Italian GP, after his debut in Japan was gone bad. “And in Monza he started to change everything” recalls the Australian, who in race-2 produced an extraordinary braking at the First Variante, from 5th to 1st, which made the public fall in love with him. “For me the fans have always been important, I have always tried to give them the attention they deserve.”
my world is superbike
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In 2001 the first title, the second lost in the last race in Imola the following year, then the call of the MotoGP, “where, however, I was not happy, my life was Superbike, and the saddle of my Ducati was like this chair , I was very comfortable “. Then, a few days after winning the 2006 World Championship, there was a call from Ducati to race the last MotoGP GP in Valencia, incredibly won. “And that’s another day I’ll never forget.” Now that he has stopped, the man who was “afraid only of not being able to win”, instead suffers to see his son Oliver, who this year, again with the Ducati of the Barni team, made his debut in the Supersport World Championship. “You can’t understand how you feel, sometimes I’m terrified, but Oli grew up in the paddock while I was racing and this is his path. If he called me or my wife Kim tomorrow to tell us that he wants to stop and go home, we would be delighted, but I know it will never happen ”.
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