Known as the Roman Emperor or the Black Corsair, his girlfriend for the last five years, Eleonora Pedron, a former Miss Italy calls him The Boss, and Max Biaggi is the rider that you either passionately love or hate.
Adored and defended by his millions of fans, so much so that his Italian fans flooded the Italian network LA7 forum with hundreds of messages demanding that Pierfrancesco Chili, commentator for the WSBK, be fired after what they thought was Chili’s biased treatment of Biaggi during and after the Portimao race.
(Chili left the network to manage the Guandalini Ducati team this year).
Controversial, provocative, outspoken a lot of things about Max Biaggi rub people the wrong way, but the February issue of Riders Italian Magazine has Biaggi on its cover and did a great interview touching a lot of bases with the former MotoGP and now WSBK rider.
Here are a few excerpts that I’ve translated from the interview:Max Biaggi: or you love him or you hate him …This makes me happy.
It means that I still get noticed in a world where sports’ personalities get used up and spat out fast.
I’ve never loved the easy way.
I’ve never could have been a politician because I lack one basic thing: I don’t kiss ass.
How do you see Michael Schumacher on a motorcycle:It’s his damn business, but if he wants to bust his ass at 40, he’s free to do so.
It’s like what Jean Alesi says:“Motorcycle racing is a dangerous hobby for those who’ve never done it.
”Many say that your rivalry with Valentino began in 1997 in the Campanella restaurant in Singapore.
He was sitting at a table with some journalists and you entered and told him that “he should wash his mouth before talking about you.
You still have to prove that you’re worth what I am.
” Is this true?Yes.
But this reaction was triggered by something annoying that he said in that moment or something he’d said previously, I don’t remember what, I’ve removed it or I would have never said something like that.
He’s always been very shrewd in certain moments with me and the media.
He was the one that always provoked me, like that time with the inflatable doll and not only that time.
Biaggi is referring to the time when Rossi won his first title in 125cc in 1997 and celebrated the title by riding with a doll called Claudia Skiffer (Schiffer) and it was the same time that Max Biaggi was dating model Naomi Campbell.
The theory is that you couldn’t stand the media success that Valentino got when he hit grand prix racing, you’d been the ambassador for Italian racing on Tv and around the world.
I was the first rider from Rome to win a world championship and thanks to this and my friends in the show business world, I opened up a lot of interesting fields.
Before me, racing could be seen only on Tele+ by about 500,000 people.
Valentino should thank me.
I’ve never had any problem saying that he’s a good rider, but you can say that he was really great at taking advantage of something that I created and using me to get more pubblicity.
Valentino has always says great things about SBK and wanted to take part in a race.
He should talk good about it.
There’s no glamour like in MotoGP.
The racing is really racing.
The single tire rule makes everything more even.
MotoGP racing is about numbers, how much you gain or loose on each lap, it’s not about the bikes.
Superbike gives you a lot of satisfaction, it’s a lot more fun.
Certainly if in 14 championships, 12 were won by Ducati this means that something isn’t quite right here either …You’ve said that in 500 and MotoGP Michelin used to give the better tires to Valentino and the worse ones to you and the others.
Some of these things were said, but it was never clear if it was true or not.
The financial crisis is leaving Kawasaki and Melandri out of racing.
Now that you’ve mentioned Melandri I remember an episode that makes me laugh.
We were in Australia after dinner and as soon as he sees me he says “Hi Max, how are you?” his breath smelt of alcohol and he went on, “You always ride hard and you go very hard, even on the Yamaha.
Only they tell me that I can’t be your fan, they don’t want me to…”Do you understand, someone in his entourage told him he couldn’t be be my fan.
These were the situations that I found myself in.