Catching up on some of the stuff that Bati’s been doing in the off-season so far we are a bit late in posting some news.

Shortly before Christmas, on December 20th, the last round of the Spanish Motocross Championship took place in Talavera de la Reina. On that occasion the Moto Club Talavera honoured both Alvaro and fellow Toledano Julian Simon with framed ceramic plates for their achievements in the world championship and their positive representation of the region.
After accepting the honours and signing autographs for the attending fans, Alvaro also took some time to talk to the press about what all the support means to him and of course recapping the 2009 season.

About the honour
“Julito and I are two local guys who’ve taken the name of Castilla-La Mancha with us to the highest level and it makes us proud that people recognize us. It is difficult to be “a prophet in your own land”, but here we have a lot of support and we feel closely wrapped in by our people. When you travel out of home this much, you still know the people are here, that they are supporting you and you can feel their passion.”

About 2009 and the Suzuki
“It’s been a strange year [...], in the end bad luck has been a steady companion. But I can say that I’ve given the maximum, I tried to fight until the end, but it was a bit like all or nothing and I got nothing.
But I prefer to focus on the future now, with the Suzuki I still have to learn a lot, I still need to improve and get a bit better every day. I want to start the first race of the year at 100% although there are only very few tests this year and this makes it complicated. But in general I am very satisfied with how things are going and I want to get to highest level possible before the first race.
The Suzuki is a bike that I enjoyed riding a lot during the tests which were mostly for getting used to it, instead of trying to find the limit. I am happy with the decision I took [to sign with Suzuki] and hopefully I can remain happy, like I was all throughout those tests.”

Apart from his appearance at this little ceremony, Alvaro also participated in the traditional New Year’s run in Talavera, on December 31st with the start at exactly 12AM. Alvaro appropriately carried the number 1 and finished the distance of about six kilometers in 26min 20sec which put him in the top 10% of the about 3000 participants.

And Alvaro received yet another award from the Federación Extremeña de motociclismo for his achievements. He was supposed to get the award at their annual Gala de Motociclismo in Miajadas last Saturday, but unfortunately a clash of schedule left him unable to attend the ceremony. Instead, his father Javier picked the prize up for him.

Top picture by fcmm.net