Old Master!
By TMX Archives on 9th Dec 05
Words and Photos by Alex HodgkinsonChicco Chiodi's 27th GP win was a long time coming but you can't put a good man down and he's determined it won't be his last! "I waited five years for that victory in Portugal but I was so Words and Photos by Alex HodgkinsonChicco Chiodi's 27th GP win was a long time coming but you can't put a good man down and he's determined it won't be his last! "I waited five years for that victory in Portugal but I was so close several times, particularly in Namur in 2004. I won the first moto and then had problems with the bike in the second race or that would have been mine."So what keeps a three times world champion who will be 33 a couple of weeks before the 2006 world series takes off so sharp, proving that age is not a limiting factor. "That win took me one clear of Dave Strijbos and one more will tie me with Gaston Rahier. I need two more GPs to become the winningest 125 rider of all time. I don't pretend it will be easy but it's my aim and it keeps me going!"Of course, the record could have been attained years ago but for Chicco's fateful decision to head Stateside on the back of a roll of three world titles in 1997, '98 and '99 - first with Yamaha and then two on Huskys."It was the correct thing to do. Everything was set up perfectly for me in America but at the last race of '99 in Italy at the Bologna Show the bike broke over a big jump and I broke my back and my wrist. It was a very bad injury and that finished my dream."I am sure I could have made it over there if that had not happened. In the beginning of '99 I had been in the US for training and for fun I rode the first three SX. The feeling was so good. I was also surprised because it had never been my plan until then. I just raced for fun but when I got in the race SX just came so easy."That injury changed my entire career. The injury to my back was so bad. It was healed after five months and it was the wrist which was giving me more trouble when I came back to race again but I am sure that somewhere in the back of my mind it was still there. You try to blank it out, you are not conscious of it but somewhere at the back of your mind you remember what happened subconsciously and you react differently to before."I was always a smooth rider, it was never my style to hang off the bike. I never raced over my limits and I still don't!"With just a few races at the end of Y2K Chicco was lured to the apparently big bucks Berni Yamaha team for 2001. "That was a very difficult year. The bike was not so good, the results were not good, the team did not work well and the mentality in the team was not good. Nothing was as it should be."And there was also a big problem with the money. I mean, you get a contract and you make plans, you take on commitments based on what you are supposed to earn and when it doesn't come..."You plan your life around what you expect to earn and it plays on your mind when you're not getting the money. Berni just told so much bull to everybody and it just drags you down!"Chicco's first world crown had come under the watchful eye of Claudio De Carli and for 2002 he signed with the Roman team for the 250 class - one of only two seasons in his 17-year GP career that he didn't ride the 125s."It started well. I was fourth in the championship after three races, second at Bellpuig and even ninth in the sand at Valkenswaard after I had to start from the pits when the plug cap broke at the start."But then in France I crashed and broke my back again, not the same as '99 - it was more in the neck this time but after that I lost the confidence and the speed. My body was not 100 per cent for the rest of the year. I came back with a fifth in Bulgaria but that was about all - those early results gave me the confidence that I could still do it."So for 2003 it was back to the smaller class, albeit on a 250 as Yamaha led the four-stroke assault on the class. "I was second again at Bellpuig and was four points off the lead but then I broke my wrist and in 2004 I broke a finger at Zolder and didn't make the start for the opening GP."By August Chicco had taken the chequered flag first in a GP moto for the first time since achieving the feat 10 times in 1999. But that early season injury kept him down in fifth in the final standings and last summer - his second with Ricci Yamaha - saw him push for the title through most of the year after that GP win at Bellpuig, his third victory at the track in northern Spain.For the rest of the story pick up a copy of Januarys dbr...