Speaking on the latest edition of the , Colin Edwards explained how he turned down ಞa planned factory Ducati WorldSBK deal to jump onto⭕ the RS Cube and follow his grand prix dream.

“At the end of 2002, Honda had more-or-less pulled out of WorldSBK so I had a deal signed with Ducati to basically take Bayliss’ seat, who was going to MotoGP,” said Edwards, who had j♒ust beaten the 🐬Australian to win a second WorldSBK crown.

“I had a contract signed. But then a cꦓouple of weeks went by and Aprilia called and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this whole truck load of money and a really shitty bike, but do you want to come and ride it in MotoGP?’

“So I thought, ‘I need to go to♛ Ducati first and see if it’s even possibl⛄e to get out [of the contract].’

“I flew over, had a meeting and I was like, ‘listen, thi♌s is the story, I’ll totally understand if you want me to stay here, but my dream would be to go there and see if I can build a MotoGP career.”

“And the💝y pretty much straight up were like: ‘We want you to do what you want to do. We don’t want to get in the way of your career. We’ve got riders that can win the world championship’. And with Honda being out, it was kind of guaranteed they would win in ’03, ’04 anyway.

“So it worked out. But I still chat about it𝔉 now and then with the D🌜ucati guys, ‘one day!’”

Things started promisingly at Aprilia, with Edwards taking sixth place on his🌊 MotoGP debut at Suzuka.

But the wild three-cylinder ‘Cube’, which featured F1 technology from Cosworth - including pneumatic valves - to deliver perhaps the most horsepower on the grid, while relying on experimental traction control and ride-by-wi♎re electronics (no physical connection between the twist grip and engine) to try and tame the power delivery, sometimes seemed to havꦛe a life of its own.

There were also ‘reliability’ issues. The most spectacular of which saw Edwards forced to bail off his Aprilia at 120mph after the fuel cap fell off at Sachsenring, sprayin♚g rider and machine with fu🉐el, which then ignited.

“That thing barbequed my nuts!” smiled Edwards on the podcast. “...You kn💖ow that term; it was ‘born bad!’”

“In 2003 that Aprilia Cube was the 🌳first bike with all ride-by-wire. There weren’t any [throttle] cables. And we did that for a reason, for the technology, to try and move forward.”

The RS Cube disappeared from MotoGP at the end o♛f 2004 having never bettered the sixth 🧸by Edwards at Suzuka.

While Aprilia's current MotoGP riders suffe𝓀r badly from heat issues when riding the RS-GP in hot races, they have fortunately avoided🐈 anything as extreme as the f꧑ireball seen at the Sachsenring in 2003.

Edwards switched to Gresini Honda for 2004 and ce💎lebrated his first MotoGP podiums, before claiming ten more rostrums during seven ye🐽ars with Yamaha (Factory and Tech3).

The Texan then joined Forward Racing to take on ꦉdevelopment of the new breed of CRT/Open class bikes, usingܫ the now mandatory standard ECU, then in its infancy.

The final year of his career was spent alongside Aleix Espargaro at Forward Yamaha in 2014. The Spaniard, now the oldest rider on the grid, finally broke his MotoGP victo🐽ry drought last year and haཧs now won three races as a factory Aprilia rider.

“It’s awesome! Aleix came from the CRT thing with me and they were horrible things to ride! I think he got pole at [Assen] that year. ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚI thoug꧋ht, ‘how the hell is he kicking that pile of shit around so fast!’ But he managed to do it!’" Edwards said.

“To come from ther🤡e, as my team-mate in 2014, [to winning races with Aprilia] - it’s well deserved. You don’t ever know when your right time will be, it could be when you’re 18 or 28 years old. Everybody’s different.

"For him to have it going on now is awesome.”

Edwards: Marquez can’t stay at Honda any longer

Quizzed by podcast host Har♔ry Benjamin on eight-time world champion Marc Marquez’s big move from Repsol Honda to Gresini Ducati next season, Edwards replied:

“I almost want to say, ‘what took you so long?’ I mean, he’s been fighting it for a few years and getting injured and all that stuff doesn’t help. I think it’s about time and I thin🐈k he’s going to j♔ump over [to Ducati] and be fast.

“If he goes any longer on the Honda - it’s hard to say Marquez losing confidence, becau♌se the guy has so much - but he can’t stay any longer.”

Keith Huewen then quoted Marquez’s recent comments in an interview with mahbx.com, in which he admitted he 168澳洲ꦚ幸运5官方开奖结果历史:doesn’t have the same con💎fidence as before after the events of the last few years.

Edwards responded: “I can totally understand that. After getting beaten up for a year or two, it de𒀰finitely wears on you. It’ll be interesting. But I think he’ll be fast, and at the sharp end, no qu🐠estion.”