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Saturday, May 10, 2008

Meeting Your Childhood Hero - Giacomo Agostini

Giacomo AgostiniIt's funny when it happens.

I was on assignment for Cycleworld covering the Legends of the Motorcycle Concourse D'Elegance at the Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay. This is my third trip to cover this event. An annual event I have been attending since it's launch three years ago. The first year was fogged in with a reasonable crowd. Last year was sunny with a bigger crowd. This year, was overcast, with a huge crowd. That said, it appeared to me to have less motorcycles. I could be wrong. What was a thrill for me was the fact that I got to meet a spritely looking 67 year old World Champion Italian motorcycle racer by the name of Giacomo Agostini. Watching him mill around the people at the event, some of whom had no idea who this person is (or was) was actually rather amusing. But for me, the chance to say hello, capture a few portraits was the highlight of the day. It was also rather good to meet up with Eraldo Ferracci who last year returned to the AMA Superbike series to run a pair of (might I add beautiful) MV Agusta F4's, ridden by Mat Lynn and Luca Scassa. Here is another portrait of Giacomo Agostini with his good friend Eraldo Ferracci taken at the Legends of the Motorcycle.Giacomo Agostini, Eraldo FerracciNext, a few words about Fontana....

3 comments:

popmonkey said...

fantastic shot of ago with the bike. i wonder if he looks forward to events in the us where he's not quite as mobbed as he must get in europe...

Tarsnakes Down Under said...

I was also a great fan of Ago, and Mike Hailwood as well , for that matter.

It would have been incderible to have been trackside at the height of the MV Agusta dominence of the race tracks.

Tarsnakes Down Under said...

I was a huge fan of Ago and Mike Hailwood when I was a teenager. Trackside with the racing MV Agusta in those days must have been magic.