Hit man!
By TMX Archives on 16th Sep 04
After two years struggling to qualify at GPs, Sicilian holeshot hotshot Antonio Cairoli has finally hit the big time... BOASTING FIVE individual world champions and two MXdN successes over the last 10 years, Italy has earned its reputation as one of the main players in modern motocross. But these successes were built around just four stars, the youngest of whom will be 30 next summer. The Tifosi needed a new sensation - and in Antonio Cairoli they have surely found him! When anyone gets as many holeshots as the 18-year-old from Messina on the island of Sicily they are bound to attract attention. But the De Carli Yamaha teamster has proved time and again that his skills extend far beyond rapid gating. Any Italian who can ride sand is an exception but Antonio scored both his first moto podium (at Valkenswaard) and his first overall top three (at Lichtenvoorde) in the soft stuff. But the quietly-spoken teenager is almost apologetic for these feats. "Most Italians are afraid of the sand but it was never a problem for me. In the south of Italy we can ride many times on the beach and there is even a series of races each winter." And being a member of the highly professional De Carli set-up helps too. "The team has bases in both Italy and at Lommel in Belgium, we spent two months there at the start of the year." Nevertheless, despite a string of strong rides in the early season Italian championship when he banged bars with Chiodi, Federici and Bartolini, it was with some trepidation that Antonio ventured to Zolder for the opening GP of the year. "I went there just hoping to qualify and I was really nervous on Saturday. In 2002 I had ridden for the Tiscali team - I didn't qualify for my first GP at Genk in Belgium but the next race was at Loket and I qualified there. I also made it in Russia but that was not difficult, everybody who traveled there got in. In 2003 I again rode for Tiscali but I didn't qualify for a single race." But come race day at Zolder and the inhibitions were gone. "I holeshot the first race and was racing at the front until I crashed. Otherwise I could for sure have finished top 10, perhaps even top five. But even after crashing I scored my first points and that was already a big step because I never expected that. "That was so good for my confidence, even more so than the results I had made in the Italian championship where I had raced with and beaten Chiodi and Federici. To do it at a GP is much more difficult." More was to come but it had been a long, hard road just to get that far. "Quite a lot of people race motocross in Sicily but just for fun and the level is not so high. A cousin of mine raced and my father bought me an Italjet when I was four years old. I started racing at regional level at the age of six and was winning pretty soon, then in 1997 I raced for the first time outside Sicily when I contested the final round of the Italian minicross championship. I got second place in the race and the following year I rode the complete series and won the championship." No other Sicilian had ever ventured onto the mainland but Antonio, a Honda rider at the time, secured a deal with the Giunta team from faraway Milan. Success followed success in the structured Italian build-up - "In 2001 I was able to race the Italian Cadetti championship at the age of 14 and I won that too. That is using normal bikes (125s) with an age limit of 16" - until the always difficult transfer from the youth to adult scene and the two dry years with Tiscali. So what's made the difference this year? "The change of team. I feel good with the team, the bike and the preparation. We did a lot of training in the winter and I learned a lot about physical training and bike set-up this winter. "I could train with Federici and that was a big improvement in my training schedule. I realised how many hours you must put in but also what you must do. I think that was the basis of the speed which I have found this year. "But the commitment of the team is also an incentive to do well. At Tiscali I was like the kid in the corner but I was immediately fully integrated into the team at De Carli. And the boss doesn't put his riders under any unnecessary stress - when Fede was injured at the start of the year there was no pressure on me to deliver the results." Words by Alex Hodgkinson For full Cairoli interview don't miss the October issue of dbr – on sale September 17