Ahead of the final round of the 2013 MotoGP Championship this weekend, Julian Ryder, Eurosport’s MotoGP commentator of over 20 years, takes a look back at his time working for the channel.

I can’t believe the sheer luck I’ve had in being able to talk about motorbikes for a living. Over the years I’ve been travelling and working with people who feel exactly the same.

Every place and every race I’ve been to has had something to recommend it, like the Rossi-mania at Mugello, the awesome nature of Phillip Island and the enthusiasm at Sachsenring.

We haven’t seen a British world champion but we’ve seen Jeremy McWilliams and Bradley Smith win races and we’ve seen Scott Redding very nearly win a championship. If you’re my age it’s been a long time coming. So that was a particular joy.

Then there’s the weird stuff. Whoever thought we would see a grand prix under floodlights in the Middle East in Qatar? That’s pretty weird. Then there’s the contrast of the glamour and money of California with the blue collar nature of Indianapolis which reminded you of what America really looks like.

My favourite ever race was the 2006 Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril. It had everything you want in a race.

It was the penultimate race of the season. Nicky Hayden had the championship lead and was torpedoed early in the race by his team-mate Dani Pedrosa of all people. Once Pedrosa had knocked down Hayden you had four men race-long fighting for the win: Colin Edwards, Kenny Roberts Junior, Valentino Rossi and Toni Elias. Elias, in the words of Rossi, “rode like a devil” and beat Rossi to the flag by 0.002 seconds, his one and only grand prix win. Those missed points eventually proved to be the difference between Vale winning and losing the title.

It’s been a pleasure working with Toby Moody all these years. It feels like we’ve been working longer than I’ve been married! We have a wonderful long term relationship where I lead him to the things he’s good at and he leads me to the things I’m good at. We spread the work so that hopefully the person we’re working for (the viewer) gets the best product we can give them. We didn’t always get it right but hopefully we managed to explain a little bit about what was going on and put it in context.

It’s always been a pleasure working for Eurosport and working with people who are passionate about sport in general and MotoGP in particular. How can that be anything other than just fun?



Toby Moody and Julian Ryder have chosen the 2006 Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril as their favourite ever MotoGP round and a replay of this race will follow the conclusion of the live Moto2 and Moto3 races at 12.25pm on British Eurosport 2 HD this Sunday. Following the delayed Valencia MotoGP race broadcast, a short compilation of the best moments from recent years will wrap up British Eurosport’s MotoGP coverage.


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