MotoGP, Aleix Espargaro breaks Covid bubble with 435 km by bike immortalized on Strava!

A couple of days ago, IRTA sent to all teams a circular email warning that there had been infractions in the ‘bubble’, organized in concert with the Malaysian government.

This stipulates that all those taking part in the tests, riders, mechanics, managers, journalists, photographers, in short, everyone, can only move from the two reference hotels – Sama Sama and Movenpick – to the circuit and vice versa. And obviously between the two hotels. Any other activity is prohibited.

It must be said that the ‘bubble’ does not only stipulate a monastic visit, but also a profusion of swabs: each participant, in fact, must have done one – valid for 48 hours – before setting off. Another one at the airport upon arrival, then a third after five days of stay in Malaysia and then a fourth before moving to Indonesia or returning to Europe .

All at a not indifferent cost: we at GPOne.com, for example, as there are two of us, will spend the tidy sum of 720 euros for swabs, but a team like Ducati can arrive at 30,000 euros, while Yamaha has made an agreement with a well-known laboratory to reduce these costs in exchange for advertising.

This is just to say how much the problem is felt in the MotoGP community.

Then there are the free spirits, and among them the freest of all are the riders, and within this category the riders who are also cyclists. In the past, the most obsessed (and fastest) of all that Cal Crutchlow, so much so that he trained with Cavendishbut Aleix Espargaro is also not bad at all, and it was he, involuntarily, who sparked off this response from IRTA because as soon as he landed at KLIA in Sepang he immediately unloaded his bike, from which he never separated, for a shakedown ride. This was followed by other freeride trips for a total of 435 km … all immortalized in the STRAVA app, the most used by sportsmen.

So no subterfuge to go, perhaps, to eat at the Hard Rock Café in Kuala Lumpur, once one of the favorite hang-outs of the paddock, but simple compulsive training. Just like a true sportsman.

“The fact is – explained Matteo Flamigniformer data technician for Valentino Rossi, today in the Ducati Mooney team alongside Bezzecchi – that for us cyclists, not posting our training sessions on Strava is almost the same as not having done them”.

After all, Aleix’s incipit on Strava reads: “Racing around the world with my Aprilia but always with a bicycle in my bag!”.