Biagi, Max

Now Max is married to the winner of the Miss Italy- 2002 beauty contest, Eleanor Pedron ; the couple has two joint children - daughter Angelica (born in 2009) and son Leon Alexander (born in 2010). ^[2]

Among the specialized media, Biaggi has received many nicknames over the years of his racing career: “Roman Emperor”, “Mad Max”, “Corsair”. Some of them came from his birthplace and appearance, and some from behavior on the track during races. ^[3]

As a child, the Italian was more interested in football, and only after receiving his motorcycle on the seventeenth birthday he tried himself in motor sports; at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, Max participated in various national championships in engineering with an engine capacity of 125 cc, gradually speaking more and more catching up with the leaders of those championships in speed and stability. In 1990, he won the national series in the Production class, and a year later the European Championship in the 250 cc class. The success of the young pilot attracted the attention of the concern Aprilla , in the same year helping him to make his debut in the world championship in the class of 250 cc. In this championship Biaggi stayed for seven seasons, already in his first full season fighting for victory in the races. Stability for battles for the general title comes only in 1994, when the Italian finished the podium positions 10 times in 14 races of the season (including five wins), outstripping Tadayuki Okada by 20 points in the fight for first place. The title does not bring much interest to his person among the senior teams and Max lingers in the second most important world championship in Grand Prix races for another three seasons, each time proving his leadership in the peloton for stability at the end of the season. The signing of a contract with the team of Erva Kanemoto on the eve of the 1997 season and the subsequent title on the Honda motorcycle they prepared, finally allow Biaggi to agree on a senior pilot contract, where he will debut at the beginning of next season.

The Italian performed in the elite series of Grand Prix motorcycle races for eight seasons from 1998 to 2005, in each of which he was one of the leaders of the peloton in terms of stability of results, having won 13 victories in 127 races and only twice did not fall into the number of overall winners offset. Good speed in the races, however, did not bring a single title at this level, although already in the first year the Italian was able to compete with Mick Duen for the championship on equal terms, losing only in the last starts of the season. In 1999-2002, Biaggi represented the Yamaha brand in the championship, maintaining his level of results, but there was no talk of fighting for the title - long before the end of the season, the lag from the championship leader exceeded possible points for several victories. In 2003, the Italian again transferred to a Honda motorcycle, but did not achieve a qualitative improvement in results. Gradually, even despite the actual status of one of the brand’s leaders, Biaggi’s results began to fall as a result of the 2005 season, when for the first time in his career at the World Championships in Grand Prix racing he did not win a single start, the Japanese company refused his services as one of his pilots, and the Italian could not find another place.

After spending a year without starts in Biaggi races on the eve of the 2007 season, he agreed with Suzuki on a contract with their factory team in the superbike world championship . The new series gave the Italian a new motivation and in the first season he was able to fight for the title, winning three starts and ending the championship with a bronze medalist in the individual competition. It was not possible to extend relations with the Japanese brand only for a season, and, in anticipation of joining the Aprilia series in 2009, Max spent the year in a private Ducati team, where he finished seven times on the podium, taking only seventh place in the championship. Refining the Aprilia motorcycle took the season, during which the Italian won one race, and already in 2010 Biaggi with a large margin won the league title, winning a dozen races and ahead of his closest opponent by 75 points. After a year, competitors noticeably approached Aprilia , while the Italian, on the contrary, reduced his own performance in races, and also got into an unpleasant accident in the middle of the season, because of which he was forced to miss three stages. As a result, Biaggi finished the season only third, losing to Carlos екеeke that dominated that year more than 200 points (the Spaniard from Ducati won 15 of 26 starts of that season).

A year later, Cheka was already noticeably weaker, and the main rivals for Aprilia were BMW and Kawasaki . By the end of the year, Tom Sykes , representing the Japanese brand, became Biaggi's main rival; For a long time Max was more stable than his British rival, finishing 11 times during the season on the podium and scoring five victories, but by the end of the year Sykes was noticeably more stable and Biaggi was able to win the title with an advantage of 0.5 points. Past injuries gradually made themselves felt in this period and even before the end of the season, Max announced that this season in races would be his last. However, having a good relationship with the leadership of the Aprilia sports program, he later several times agreed to help the concern in finalizing his equipment at the test site.

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