Along with Greg Haines, 2021 FIM Endurance World Championship winner and two-time 24 Heures Motos winner Xavier Siméon (left) forms part of the EWC pitlane reporting crew for 2025. This is his expert view on some of some of the key talking points ahead of the 24 Heures Motos opening the new EWC season.
Joining a new team: “You arrive with a new approach, new motivation and you want to prove your new team did a good choice to choose you as their rider. For example with Mike Di Meglio, in his case, it’s a good pressure but a positive pressure because he arrives in a team, Kawasaki Webike Trickstar, that is in the process of coming back to the top. Especially in endurance, when you arrive in a new team, the team makes everything very good for you from the beginning so there is no problem with adapting.”
Changing motorcycles and tyre suppliers: “In the case of Mike it’s not a different tyre brand because he came from a team with Bridgestone and now he rides a Kawasaki on Bridgestone so this simplifies the process for Mike. If it would have been a new tyre, maybe it would have been more difficult for him, especially during the night when you really don’t know how the tyre will work. But he knows perfectly the tyre.”
Keeping busy when missing out through injury: “With Dan Linfoot it’s really a pity because he tried everything to recover on time, to be fit, to ride the 24 Heures Motos. In his head it has to be a difficult moment because in endurance we speak about a team and his team knows he’s a very important part of the team. For Cocoro Atsumi it will be a big extra pressure but the team will help him to understand how it can be in all conditions.”
Dealing with the close competition: “It’s one of the best years for EWC and we’ll have a big, big fight. We have five factory bikes on Bridgestone, Marc VDS Racing is coming to KM99, Dunlop will want to prove their tyre works very well.”
Coping with the changing weather: “For the rider when you have changing weather it’s the worst you can have. Especially in the night because you don’t see how the track is improving or not improving. It’s very difficult. There is already a lot of pressure in the race to be fast and consistent and overtake the other riders because there is a difference the more the race is going. We will also see which brand of tyre has worked good during the winter to provide a very performing tyre. It will be interesting to see the level but I think everyone will be very fast, making the race even more exciting.”
Original Source [ FIM EWC ]
