Yamaha and I, One Step Ahead

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

As I am sure you all know it has been a long but very eventful winter for me since the last race of 2009 at Valencia – my time has been almost equally divided between MotoGP testing, promotional trips to South East Asia for Yamaha, training in the gym and visiting the doctor’s surgery!

In fact, it was in surgery where my winter started, back in November when I had an operation on an old injury to my left collarbone. It was a relatively small procedure and after a couple of weeks recovery I was able to travel to Bangkok, where I made a morning visit to the Thai Yamaha Motor factory before spending the afternoon at the capital city’s most important dealership, the Yamaha Rider’s Club.

I was welcomed by the factory President Frank Nagashima and Chief Operating Officer Praphan Phornthanavasit, before being given a tour of each of the departments, where no fewer than 3,000 people work – mainly on production of the country’s biggest selling motorcycle, the 115cc Yamaha Fino. “You will be the next number one,” Nagashima told me, as we posed for photographs with the factory workers. It was nice of him to say that.

In the afternoon I did a series of interviews with the local press before putting on my race leathers to test ride a Yamaha YZF-R1, decorated in Fiat Yamaha livery and with my number 99 on the front, in front of 800 people who were all going crazy – especially when I did a burnout for them! It was incredible to see so many happy people in a place like Bangkok, where they don’t get to see this kind of event very often. Motorcycling is not one of the most popular sports there but it is certainly one of the most important businesses.

The next day we travelled to Indonesia, where we attended the launch of the Jupiter Z in Jakarta alongside representatives of the 3,000 Yamaha dealerships in the country. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw 5,700 people crammed into this convention centre, where the event took place, so I tried to give them all something to smile about by talking in their language. I said “Yamaha, Semakin di depan,” which is the factory’s slogan in Indonesia. It means “Yamaha, one step ahead” and both Valentino and I have it on our bikes throughout the 2010 season. The event was amazing – the only thing I can compare it to was a show I saw in Las Vegas! It gave me goosebumps when everybody cheered for me. I also went to the International Karting Circuit in Sentul for the final of the Asean Cup, which is organised by Yamaha, and made the opening speech, as well as completing a couple of laps of course! Later I recorded a television advert with Komeng, Indonesia’s most famous comedian, before heading for a well-earned holiday in Bali.

I returned to Europe before Christmas and I went to Italy for a Dainese launch party in Bologna before going to Munich the following day to open the new Dainese D-Store, near to the Olympic Stadium, where around 400 people queued in the cold and snow for autographs and photos. I was surprised just how cold it was there but it was great to see that level of support in Germany, a country with huge respect and love for motorsport.

Finally I got some rest over Christmas but rest for me means hard work in the gym! I did a lot of work with my trainer and manager Marcos Hirsch, who introduced some new kinds of martial arts to my workout. It is a case of introducing new things to my training that can translate into a tenth or two on the track, things that can give me even the slightest boost. I have also done more swimming, which is one of the toughest sports around and teaches you to breath efficiently on not much air.

As a result I was in good shape for the first test of 2010 at Sepang but I actually found it difficult to find my rhythm on the opening day. It wasn’t a big problem, it’s just that after such a long break I forget how to ride a little bit! I needed a bit of time but it was much better on the second day, when I ended the session third fastest overall behind Rossi and Casey Stoner. I could tell that Yamaha had made good improvements without changing the good parts of the bike and this is the best way. They made some good modifications to the chassis and the engine, which had already improved our pace and I left Malaysia feeling happy and confident.

From Kuala Lumpur I travelled with Valentino to Bangkok for two days of promotional work for Thailand Yamaha Motor. We made an appearance at the Yamaha Riders Club and went on television with the Thailand Night Show and then appeared in front of almost 10,000 fans to unveil the new Yamaha Mio 125cc. It was a fun trip.

As I’m sure you know it was on my return to Barcelona from Bangkok that I injured my hand during motocross training at a practice track near Montmeló. I fell in a slow corner, doing approximately 30km/h, and hurt my right hand as I landed. I was taken immediately to the Capio Hospital General de Catalunya and they found a fracture to the base of the first metacarpal, which is basically the bone on the back of your hand that links to your thumb. Dr. Augusto J. Casanovas made the operation to fix a small titanium plate to the bone and I was told to wear a hand protection for four to six weeks, which basically took me to the Qatar test and meant I would miss the second session in Malaysia.

I was obviously disappointed but things could have been much worse, given that we had already verified the bike’s performance at Sepang and have lots of good data for when we race there in October. Even though I was missing out on the test I was keen to fly out to the far east and maintain my latest appointment in Indonesia. My first engagement was at the ‘Flower City’ Bandung, where I took part in an important press conference to launch the ‘Semakin di Depan’ sponsorship. As well as the press conference we enjoyed a warm welcome at an exclusive fan meet and greet where I signed hundreds of autographs. After visiting Bandung, we moved on to Jogjakarta, the city where the traditional Indonesian art of batik is practised, to meet more Yamaha customers there and take part in some outdoor activities at one of the biggest malls in Jogjakarta.

I also spent some time during my recovery at my parental home in Mallorca, where I supported my father in his new project – the ‘Liga Social Interescuelas,’ a race series for children aged between 6 and 13. The kids come from either the Lorenzo Competición school in Mallorca or the KSB Sport school in Valencia and they compete against each other in teams. The series is to be run over six weekends – three in Mallorca and three in Valencia – and in the opening event the Valencians won in two categories (4.2 and 6.2bhp), whilst the Mallorcans won in one (15bhp). I’m sure the next round in Paterna on the 3rd April will be just as close.

It was fantastic for me to witness how many people have embraced my father’s idea – there were almost a thousand people there to watch these kids enjoying themselves on motorcycles. I was also really surprised by the quality of the circuit they have built there and it made me feel proud to think that so much is being done to support motorcycle racing in my homeland. My father’s idea is also a great way to educate kids about the importance of teamwork, which I think is a wonderful thing and it is often missing from individual sports.

Thankfully on the Monday before the Qatar test my doctor confirmed that I would be able to take part. He said that there was no risk to the broken bone from riding and even though the hand was no longer swollen I would need to continue with physiotherapy in order to keep repairing the muscle around the break. The fracture happened less than five weeks before the test but we could not have missed it because it would have been negative for our preparation so close to the first race of the season! The doctor has made a special carbon fibre protection and Dainese modified my glove, in order to further protect the fracture.

It felt really good to be back on my bike and actually when I went out on track on the first night my hand felt better than I had expected. The pain had decreased a lot in the previous few days and I was able to do quite a lot of laps. The special glove helped when changing direction but in the hard braking areas I still had some problems, with the force of the handlebar directly onto the sore muscle around my thumb. The second day was worse for this and I had to keep applying an ice pack to the area to reduce the swelling but I hope it will have improved a lot by the time of the first race. The fact I was able to finish sixth fastest shows that bike is great – Yamaha have done a fantastic job and you can see this from the strong performance of all the Yamaha riders.

We’ve done a lot of work and tried many things, so I hope that these will help us when we go back to Qatar in a couple of weeks. I will keep working to strengthen my hand and I hope to be in much better condition by then. Hopefully we can have more luck when the season starts than we have done during the winter!

Yamaha, Semakin di depan!

Jorge #99