COMPETITION: Designers Wanted!

Any Alvaro Bautista fan who fancies getting their work out on the web, and who fancies a cute little golden '19' pin badge, should go over to BatiFans.com and check out our latest competition...

We're going to be affiliating with some official MotoGP riders websites/forums and as part of this there will be a 'button' exchange - we will have little graphic buttons somewhere on our pages and so will the other forums.
So - the competition is to design a small, very groovy, graphic button (100 pixels wide by 35 pixels deep) featuring a pic of Alvaro (action? portrait? up to you...) which may be graphically treated in any way and which also features the words "Alvaro Bautista". Any BatiFans.com forum member can enter.

The winner will get a very cool, very rare, little metal '19' badge pin which looks great in a jacket or shirt.
There's a topic with further details here...
Good luck if you plan on entering :)
Closing date is 12/01/08

Happy Christmas Alvaro - & All The Bati Fans Out There

Well; this is really just a kind of very general, off-topic post to say a Happy Christmas to all the other Bati fans out there.
Obviously there's not really much in the way of direct news about Alvaro right now, so I'm not doing much updating on the blog.
That's not to say I'm not online or doing Bati-related things; we'll definitely be keeping up the chat over at BatiFans.com - The Alvaro Bautista Fan Forum - especially now stv21's back from the USA and I'm back from a quick and heavenly hot break in west Africa.

I got back to London at 4am on Saturday and following a frenzy of unpacking and re-packing came up to Lincolnshire yesterday on a very chilly, very early morning journey through freezing fog, to spend Xmas with my folks.
My MotoGP season review DVD has arrived so I'm looking forward to sitting down at watching that, although I'd really have liked to get the 250cc/125cc review first.
So a few days up here, and getting used to the cold again - then back to London inn time for new year.

So that's it really... Have a great Christmas - and let me be the first to give you a quick festive snog under the mistletoe which I've conveniently and sneakily hung at the top of this post. No tongues though... lol :)
Happy 2008 to you, and for Alvaro of course, who I'm dying to follow through another great season. Can't wait for it all to start again!

Cheers,
gb

Away on Holiday!

Right - well I'm off to sunny, hot, fab Gambia for a week before Christmas hits us.
If you want any breaking Bati news, or MotoGP chat in general then go to the Alvaro Bautista Fan Forum at BatiFans.com where all our special Christmas downloads - wallpapers, icons, videos and pictures - are already online; special treats for special fans of the very special Alvaro Bautista :)

Christmas Is Coming For Alvaro Bautista Fans

If you're a Bati fan, then you should get over to our Alvaro Bautista Fan Site & Forum as we've got some really cool Christmas prezzies coming up in the next few days for our members.
Can't really say much more that that, or it'll spoil the surprise :)

'Historias Sobre Ruedas' Clips on Youtube

Go check out the videoclips posted by GaSa34 on Youtube for some cool clips of some of MotoGP's nice guys (and in lower classes too, not only the main MotoGP class, but also 250 and 125).
There's short documentaries (in Spanish) from a series called 'Historias sobre ruedas' on riders such as Andrea Dovizioso, Hector Barbera, both Aleix and Pol Espargaro and Aspar's 125 squad newbie for 2008, Pere Tutusaus (who's in the clip above)....

The Alvaro Bautista 2008 PDF Calendar Download

Another goodie for you... this one, all modesty aside, really is pretty special...
It's our 2008 BatiCal - a superb A4 sized PDF calendar, absolutely stuffed with awesome pictures of Alvaro on and off the bike and also chocca with all the useful MotoGP dates for 2008 too; it's indispensable and it's all you'll need to keep an eye on those crucial dates.
It looks great printed out onto glossy paper and bound as a "real" desktop calendar; alternatively you can just download it to your PC or Mac desktop and keep it there for whenever you need it.
Click here for full info and download...

Enjoy :)

Alvaro Bautista 2007 "Lightbox" Desktop Wallpaper

I've done a desktop wallpaper to try and capture some of the coolest images of Alvaro across the year. It's ended up being a kind of photographer's "lightbox" with film strips containing different pictures...
It's available in two sizes:

1 - standard 1280x1024 - CLICK HERE

2 - widescreen 1280x800 - CLICK HERE

Enjoy :)
And if you want loads more goodies like this then come join us at the BatiFans.com Fan Forum where we have loads more... and bundles of exclusives downloads and goodies for our biggest fans.

Jerez Test - Alvaro 2nd on final day

Okay so this is a day late really... (sorry I was busy)... but here's the timesheets form Wednesday's testing at Jerez.
Birthday Boy came in second, and with an excellent looking time. :)

250cc:
1.-Mika Kallio (KTM) 1.44.213
2.-A. Bautista (Aprilia) 1.44.380
3.-H. Faubel (Aprilia) 1.44.604
4.-M. Pasini (Aprilia) 1.44.791
5..-J. Simón (KTM) 1.44.999
6.-H. Barbera (Aprilia) 1.45.124
7.-H. Aoyama (KTM) 1.45.135
8.-L. Pesek (Aprilia) 1.45.236
9.-T. Luthi (Aprilia) 1.45.270
10.-R. Locatelli (Gilera) 1.45.497
11.-K. Abraham (Aprilia) 1.45.530
12.-I. Toth (Aprilia) 1.46.249
13.-M. Poggiali (Aprilia) 1.46.359
14.-A. Baldolini (Aprilia) 1.46.451
15.-F. Sandi (Aprilia) 1.47.794
16.-R. Cardús (Aprilia) 1.49.119

125cc:
1.-Sergio Gadea (Aprilia) 1.47.782
2.-Sandro Cortese (Aprilia) 1.48.254
3.-B. Smith (Aprilia) 1.48.457
4..-S. Corsi (Aprilia) 1.48.584
5.-G. Talmacsi (Aprilia) 1.48.642
6.-E. Rabat (KTM) 1.49.148
7.-M. Di Meglio (Derbi) 1.49.217
8.-D. Aegerter (Derbi) 1.50.863

Happy Birthday Alvaro!

Er.... that's it really.... Happy Birthday Alvaro ("feliz cumpleanos")

Have a great day, and a great year, and loads more.
gb

Alvaro 4th on first day of Jerez test

Bati was eventually classed 4th on day one (19_11_07) of the Jerez test, attended by both 250 and 125 teams.
He had an off during the day - apparently some kind of coming together with Julian Simon - but still pulled in very respectable times and position.

Here's the timesheets in full...

250cc:
1.-H. Aoyama (KTM) 1.44.330
2.-M. Kallio (KTM) 1.44.702
3.-H. Barbera (Aprilia) 144.711
4.-A. Bautista (Aprilia) 1.44.796
5.-H. Faubel (Aprilia) 1.45.013
6.-T. Luthi (Aprilia) 1.45.183
7.-K. Abraham (Aprilia) 1.45.313
8.-R. Locatelli (Gilera) 1.45.852
9.-J. Simón (KTM) 1.46.022
10.-L. Pesek (Aprilia) 1.46.352
11.-I. Toth (Aprilia) 1.46.817
12.-F. Sandi (Aprilia) 1.49.088
13.-Ricky Cardús (Aprilia) 1.49.740
14.-A.Baldolini (Aprilia) 1.53.612


125cc:
1.-Gabor Talmacsi (Aprilia) 1.47.907
2.-Sergio Gadea (Aprilia) 1.48.453
3.-Simone Corsi (Aprilia) 1.48.656
4.-M. di Meglio (Derbi)
5.-Esteve Rabat (KTM) 1.49.159
6.-Sandro Cortese (Aprilia) 1.49.633
7.-Pablo Nieto (KTM) 1.50.408
8.-D. Aegerter (Derbi) 1.51.688

Testing continues Tuesday and Wednesday; according to circuit notes Alvaro is present all days...

Join Our Alvaro Bautista Fan Map...

I've set up a Frappr Map - mainly for forum members, but anyone's welcome really...
Just plonk a pin in the map to show where you are and to show just how far and wide Alvaro's fanbase goes...
Frappr's not as good as it used to be; in their "refinements" and "improvements" they've actually made things less intuitive and less smart / flexible - but it's still a good way of mapping a community such as ours :)

The link is www.frappr.com/batifans

And here is a little embedded version anyway...

Come and join us on the map, and join us on the forum :)

Alvaro Book Arrives!

Woohooh!
The book's arrived :)
Couple of weird things - like some 'squashed' proportion pictures, but basically a lovely picture based book, nice glossy stock in a hardback cover; and a dead nice presentation overall with lots of familiar pics and some unseen ones too.
First impressions - very good :)
Many more impressions to come, I'm sure, as I root through it a few more times.

Basically - very happy :)

Congratulations Alvaro; Rookie of the Year

Big congrats to Alvaro on getting the FIM MotoGP Award for ROOKIE OF THE YEAR - 250cc - an excellent end to a less than perfect weekend, but also to a superb season overall.

Great to see it's not just us fans who've noticed :)
Congratulations fella!

A Sense Of Perspective

It would be easy to feel a bit down about today’s race; Bati binning it whilst in a great 2nd position and a fine chance of finishing the season with a 1st.
(So easy in fact, that I’d admit to being a tad down about it myself...)

Nonetheless, whilst it’s easy to dwell on single results - especially at a season end where you’re in danger of remembering little else for the next few weeks - it’s far more healthy, and correct, to take a moment like now to put things in perspective:

Alvaro has performed brilliantly as a 250cc rookie. It’s his maiden season, and he took his first victory at six races in at Mugello. Not only was it a victory but it was a spectacular victory, filled with totally balls-out racing and a nerve-shredding last lap passing Lorenzo (who flung himself into some gravel in disgust) and de Angelis.
And amidst plenty of podiums he took a second victory at Estoril where he made up for a scrappy start by heroically carving through the field and simply heading off into the distance ahead of Lorenzo and Dovizioso.
He’s wound up 4th in the overall championship with a very creditable 181 points, and such a strong first season - and the evidence of our own eyes of how beautifully he rides and how passionately he races - suggests that next season will be even better.

Shit happens sometimes. As it did today. But do what Alvaro does; keep a smile on your face; cos he’s given us a brilliant season’s worth of excitement, and he’ll do it again in 2008.

Have a good rest and a good off-season Bati :)

And all you Bati fans out there - get over to our BatiFans.com Alvaro Bautista Fan Forum where we’ll be all winter till the next season comes. Come and chat with other fans, and join in with our fun and comeptitions; including some with excellent Bati prizes...