The Christmas period being conducive to books summarizing the 2024 MotoGP season, we can wonder if Michel Turco’s latest work, “Marc Marquez, the love of risk”, deserves to be purchased and find a place in our library…
The answer is given from the first pages, with this passage taken from “Being Marc Marquez”, published by Werner Jessner last year, “If I see a wall, I go through it. It’s that simple. No matter how many times I try or how hard I hit my head against it, I won’t stop until I get through this wall. This is true in life, and of course on the circuits. This has always been my approach, and it will never change. I don’t compromise.”
Challenged by this resounding declaration, we can only continue reading, even if the Spanish champion is then forced to temper his words somewhat, taking into account what was a real halt to his career, in Jerez in 2020 , “If the goal is to become world champion, this is the wall you have to overcome. In this case, there is a wall that is not worth crossing, it is to overtake a competitor who no longer has importance in the general classification, at the risk of one’s life. »
Working alongside the prodigy since his arrival in the Grand Prix, Michel Turco retraces and illustrates all the stages of Marc Marquez’s journey from a very young age, to clearly highlight the exceptional character of the boy, all enhanced with a kaleidoscope of details and anecdotes that would make the stained glass windows of Notre-Dame de Paris blush.
Drawing on the statements of the pilot himself and the words of all those who accompanied issue 93, or almost (Emilio Alzamora has clearly still not digested), the author adds to this cocktail his perfect knowledge of the environment, to concoct for us a particularly rich work and provided throughout the 320 pages embellished with almost 80 photos, including some from the personal collection of the Spanish pilot. Let’s be honest, we learned a lot, a lot, of things!
So, to the question of whether it is worth buying, for yourself or as a gift, the answer is undoubtedly “Yes”, and with a big exclamation point!
