MTECH Leathers - Great Poster Giveaway!

MTECH - the company which supplies Alvaro's leathers - has very kindly donated 50 extremely cool A3 sized posters for us to give away to our forum members over at BatiFans - The Alvaro Bautista Fan Forum.
To find out if you're one of the lucky winners in PART ONE of our great giveaway click here - and if you're not a member, then come and join in! We're a delightful bunch, and we have lots more competitions and giveaways coming up for our members.

PS: Thank you MTECH - we love you!

MTECH Leathers Launches Special "Racing Service"

MTECH, as you may know is a partner to Alvaro Bautista, supplying him with leathers for the 2009 season - and it's with this kind of involvement with the sport globally, that MTECH has this year launched its “Racing Service”.

A truck equipped with all accessories to service the riders is ready on all Road Racing World Championship tracks, starting every Thursday before the race. With this initiative, MTECH has reached its goal of “being” on the tracks with a dedicated service, managed by its qualified technicians.
In this way MTECH ensures that it is always near the riders, that it gives them the best assistance and gets their feedback and tips to continuously improve and increase the garment performance.

The pictures show the "Racing Service" truck, and also a set of Alvaro's MTECH leathers being given attention onsite by MTECH's expert crew.

Alvaro Joins SIDI Line-up For 2009

SIDI have just put out the following press release confirming our suspicions of a switch from TCX in parallel with his switch from Clover leathers to MTECH...

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January 9th, 2009 – Big news at Sidi Sport! Another extraordinary rider has become a part of Sidi’s line-up of great champions.  Alvaro Bautista, class of 1984 and a key player for Team Aspar, will be one to watch for the 250 class, 2009 World Championships.

And of course, Sidi Vortice boots will be there with him all the way. These boots offer all the best of Sidi’s technology, designed and developed for maximum performance on the speedway while guaranteeing maximum comfort and safety for the rider. Manufactured inLorica and lined with Teflon-treated airflow weave, Vortice’s outstanding features also include the ankle support braces with ankle joint,sliders with alloy inserts (fundamental on the track), shock-absorbing heels, nylon insoles and rubber soles with changeable inserts.
 
Bautista has shown himself to be a motorcycling phenomenon from the start. After introducing his talent in the Spanish Championship and the European Speed Championships, in 2002 Alvaro debuted in the World competition, where he contested 4 races in the 125 class. The following year the Spanish racer began his great adventure in the maximum category and in 2004 he placed 7th in the world standings.

In2006 he won his first championship victory on his hometown circuit of Jerez; Bautista followed up with another 7 wins and 16 more podiums, riding a wave of great results to clinch the World Championship in the 125 class in Australia, at the age of 22. In 2007 he jumped into the 250 class and in the style of a great champion got right into the rhythm of his new bike and rode it to 2 victories and a total of 5 podiums.
 
The rest is recent history. In 2008 the Spanish rider was second in World class standings with 8 consecutive podiums, hot on the heels of the Italian Simoncelli at the end of an exciting championship that was a hard fought competition to the very last race.  And 2009 promises to be another great season of success for Alvaro Bautista and Sidi Sport!
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As with MTECH, it sounds another promising partnership and it's of course excellent to see such a huge name as SIDI getting Alvaro onboard.
All things seem to point to a great deal of confidence in our guy, and we hope they also signpost a great year ahead. :-)

A Tough Brand Needs A Tough Man

(*Above: Lorenzo Faggionato, Research & Development Product Manager for MTECH on the left, with Alvaro in his new kit)

Further to that news about Alvaro's switch to MTECH leathers, they have sent me this press release which covers off the reasoning behind the taking up of our hero, plus a general potted career history.
Love the last paragraph... :-)

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Alvaro Bautista has signed a partnership agreement with MTECH for 2009.
The Racer will take part in the 250cc category of the world championships, as official racer for the Aspar Martinez team. He will be wearing one of the NKP number 19 suits, and accessories from the company in Arzignano firm, members of Mastrotto Group.

Alvaro Bautista, born in Talavera della Reina 1984, has been a revelation in 125cc world championship racing. Back in 2004 he stepped up on the podium for coming second at Donington Park. He also found himself on the podium once at Qatar and once at Malaysia.

In 2006 he won the 125cc championship, wearing Aspar’s colours. He had enjoyed a perfect season, winning 8 of the 17 GP races, and stepping up on the podium 14 times.

In 2007 Bautista moved across to the the 250cc category, accompanying team member Alex De Angelis, also riding an Aprilia and wearing Aspar's colours.
He didn’t waste time stealing stardom, winning two races (Italy and Portugal) and stepping up on the podium 5 times, despite having fractured bones during the season, by the end of the season he found himself in fourth position.

For the 2008 season, Alvaro continued on the 250cc with Héctor Faubel, Mapfre Aspar Team racing partner.
He was favourite for the title at the start of the world championships, but a couple of breakdowns put the title out of his grasp.
He finished the season in second position, and in the end, was really the only one, capable of rivaling Marco Simoncelli.

Things are certainly looking up for him in 2009 though, and MTECH have decided to put money on it, well aware that a tough brand needs a tough man, whose energy is based on technique and the determination to aim always higher.
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Let's hope it's a great relationship between Alvaro and MTECH, and I wonder how much those '19' suits they refer to are going to cost...?
And where can I get one!!!

New Year, New Gear

News from Daily Motos reports that Alvaro has switched from Clover leathers to M-TECH, with photos emerging of him modelling the NKP Racer suit.
The photos also show he's wearing Sidi boots rather than his usual TCX, though it's not mentioned whether there's any change in this respect (although it would be surprising if he modelled a brand he does not normally wear/promote...)