Team Suzuki Press Office – March 16.
Yoshimura SERT Motul Endurance World Championship rider Gregg Black talks about winter riding and training, the recent Le Mans test in France and looking forward to getting back on track at the end of the month again with all his teammates.
“It’s been a long time without riding my race bike and since our Endurance World Championship win last September at Estoril, I haven’t been riding the SERT GSX-R1000R at all.
“As the calendar has been updated and now back to a normal year calendar beginning at the 24H Le Mans in April, and ending in October at Estoril, for me, this is much more easy; it just made us have a long pause with no riding.
“My winter was quite long; I decided to go down to Spain a few times to find some good weather and be able to get some riding-in on many different bikes (Supermoto, Flat Track, and also my personal GSX-R1000R) plus of course keeping up with my physical training, Cycling.
“During winter also leaves me the time to sort out all my personal sponsors and set out my 2021 season in good conditions.
“Now after meeting the team for some photos at the end of February, then making my first official tests on the 2021 bike on March 8-11th, I can say we are pretty ready to defend our world title.
“The first feelings on the new bike were great. I got the hang of the new Bridgestone tyres, made new steps on the bike pretty fast; and feel really comfortable on it. We also made some ‘stint’ simulations and many laps!
“I also got to meet our new team mate Kazuki Watanabe, who will be our fourth rider for the next 24H Le Mans. Unfortunately my two other team mates couldn’t be at the tests as Sylvain (Guintoli) was testing in Qatar for Team Suzuki Ecstar MotoGP and Xavier (Simeon) was in quarantine after been in contact with a Coronavirus case.
“I am looking forward to the next test on March 30-31st at Le Mans again to get back on the new 2021 Yoshimura SERT Motul GSX-R1000R and also finally be with all my teammates.
“Stay tuned!”
Gregg BLACK
