Giacomo
Agostini: Champion of Champions
Mick Walker
Fifteen world titles – eight at 500cc –
and twelve Isle of Man TT victories in an extraordinary
17-year career make Giacomo Agostini the most successful
racing motorcyclist in the history of the sport. His
precocious talent and the courage and flair he demonstrated
as a rider throughout his long career marked him out
from all his contemporaries. Yet, until now, no full-length
study of his spectacular career has been published
in English.
In this fully illustrated and in-depth new study
Mick Walker reassesses Agostini’s remarkable
record and explores the personal and technical background
to his achievement. He writes of Agostini’s
birth in northern Italy, his success as a teenager
in hillclimbs and other local events and his sudden
appearance on the world stage as Mike Hailwood's teammate
at MV in 1965. No one then could have predicted the
matchless run of success that followed – no
less than 122 Grand Prix wins. He mastered every course
he encountered – the TT circuit, Spa, the Nürburgring
– and outrode all his rivals during a decade
of dominance.
Agostini turned briefly to motor racing after he
retired from motorcycles, then went into motorcycle
team management with Yamaha and Cagiva, and was closely
involved in the design of the MV Agusta F4 superbike.
Mick Walker covers this less-well known side of Agostini’s
career, but he concentrates on the motorcycling years
and on the motorcycles themselves. There is a technical
analysis of the bikes Agostini rode and developed,
in particular the 350cc and 500cc MVs he used at his
peak. There is also a full race-by-race record of
his achievement.
Praise for John Surtees: Motorcycle Maestro
"an in-depth study of a remarkable career"
Sport Book of the Week, The
Independent
"a ‘must-have’ for all road racing
enthusiasts and for anyone who follows motorcycle
sport"
iomtt.com – official
Isle of Man TT site
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