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FEATURE<br />
and balconies. The brothers’ ‘official store’ is a<br />
stone’s throw from the imposing university next<br />
to the narrow high street and is overlooked by<br />
the balcony of the Casal de Cervera bar/hall<br />
where town celebrations to honour the world<br />
champ have become almost an annual fixture.<br />
Cervera is the epitome of a sleepy town at<br />
10am on a Tuesday morning. It’s January, bright<br />
and cold and only a handful of people are wandering<br />
around, flanked by medieval masonry<br />
and covered alleys that are celebrated for their<br />
past association with black magic and witchcraft<br />
(perhaps some of Marc’s bike skills now<br />
begin to make sense). The Central Café is silent<br />
and barely inhabited – two older gentlemen<br />
stir coffee cups and flick through two of Spain’s<br />
four daily sports newspapers. Marquez regalia<br />
is on the wall and outside a small coin-operated<br />
plastic motorcycle offer riders to little kids.<br />
“CONSTERNATION AND<br />
CONJECTURE COULD FILL<br />
MARQUEZ’S FIRST STEPS OF<br />
THE CAMPAIGN, AND MYSTERY<br />
AROUND WHETHER HE’LL<br />
BE ABLE TO CREATE A NINTH<br />
PAINTING FOR REPSOL...<br />
Approaching the town museum – almost entirely<br />
missable were it not for a set of directions<br />
provided by HRC – and peering through the<br />
glass door reveals the Marc Marquez exhibition.<br />
Inside Repsol have hung the eight ‘paintings’<br />
created by the rear wheel of a Honda Fireblade<br />
furiously flicked by the 26 year old for a MM93<br />
‘artist’ concept. At least ten TV crews are fighting<br />
for room next to all of the Catalan’s titlewinning<br />
bikes and a vast collection of trophies,<br />
leathers and other mementos from a dizzying<br />
career.<br />
Marquez is speaking for the first time since<br />
MotoGP entered the brief winter slumber, and<br />
from a fairly dormant period of personal social<br />
media activity and updates from the #93. He is<br />
almost fifteen minutes late after the call-time<br />
to momentarily chat about his creative scheme<br />
with Repsol and then answer enquiries as to his<br />
physical shape – the second winter in a row of<br />
dealing with shoulder surgery and intense rush<br />
of physio and rehab to gain fitness in time for<br />
the season.
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