Cal Crutchlow Talks MotoGP Speed

Cal Crutchlow Talks MotoGP Speed

- Adam Wheeler

Squat, with an unfaltering stare, prominent sinews and a wit as sharp as his reactions while jostling a 360kmph MotoGP prototype motorcycle, Cal Crutchlow is an uncomplicated and ‘old fashioned’ racer: a 33 year old with a hobbled right ankle that will either harry and hassle the likes of Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi or be contemplating the rash of gravel stones.

For many Crutchlow is the point of attention when MotoGP returns to the UK and to a resurfaced (and optimistic) Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. Crutchlow is a figurehead (the sole Brit in the MotoGP pack) who has not only given the UK distinction with his three victories though 2016-2018 but also thrilled the home fans when he ran to second position at Silverstone in ’16. In 2019 he’ll mark 150 GP appearances by rolling out onto the former airfield and fourth fastest track in MotoGP.

Crutchlow has owned chequered flags in every series he has contested. From World Supersport (where he was world champion) BSB, WorldSBK and MotoGP. He has felt the pace of elite level competition for almost fifteen years. He is part of a cast of a sport that is breathlessly and innovatively portrayed on television and is a sensory assault of noise, power and pace from trackside fences; where the athletes have to hit their marks at tremendous intensity and at an eye-straining blur from the first minutes of a session. What is it like to live like that?

Do you have to get used to speed? You spend ten months of the year racing, practicing, qualifying and testing and then have a two-month off-season ‘black-out’ where you don’t even see a Grand Prix bike. What are those first laps like at 200mph?