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The numbers consecrate him as greatest of all. Giacomo Agostini has won something like 122 Gran Prix races and 15 world titles. Impressive numbers.
In September 1964, Giacomo -Mino for his friends- was summoned to the mythical MV headquarters at Cascina Costa near Gallarate in the province of Varese. Count Domenico Agusta had heard about the 20-year old from Costa Volpina, near Bergamo's Lake Iseo, who was making news on the curves of Italian circuits aboard the single-cylinder Morini. And more: at the classic Trento-Bondone uphill time trials of those years he'd set an incredible record.
The count was at a turning point. he'd had a very compact new three-cylinder 350 prepared for the '65 season; now he wanted an Italian rider. At that time his MVs had British riders, and the ace was Mike Hailwood. Agusta was looking for a rider who was small but gutsy and civilized, right for both the 350 and the 500. That day a legend was born that would last for a decade.
Agostini didn't win right away, but almost. He had 'Mike the Bike' as a discomfiting teammate in the 500: a steely and expert rider. You can imagine Ago's tension as he pitted himself against the Brit on fast and demanding tracks like Nurburgring or the terrible Tourist Trophy on the Isle of Man: 60 km of curves between trees and walls at an average of 160 an hour. Mino finished second, the best he could do -with gaps of over a minute. Anyway, in his first season he won at Imatra in Finland, and in '66 -when Hailwood moved to Honda- he won the first of the eight world titles he was to take in the 500 and three partial wins. The entire MV team, from manager Arturo Magni to mechanic Fiorenzo Fanali, was excited about the rider they affectionately nicknamed "the little guy." The kid's only fault was a reluctance to open his wallet at bars or restaurants despite the fat contract. But nobody's perfect.
From then on it was one win after another. Of course, those were special times. After '68 competition wasn't warlike, Ago could lap even the runners-up and win every race of the season. But the best bike -the MV- was obviously in the hands of the best rider: nobody could doubt that. A rider who was always 100% committed, who had great class and a limpid style, who attended to every tiniest detail, and who kept himself in perfect shape despite temptations. Right - because Giacomo was a myth known everywhere, a movie and photo-story star with his pictures in all the papers and women stalking him day and night. I saw it: he literally had to escape them. Enough to lose your head.
The big change with the 1973 earthquake. That May, Renzo Pasolini and Yamaha's flying Finn, Jarno Saarnien crashed in the big curve at Monza: a drama. And in September, Ago's MV teammate, Phil Read, took the title away from him in Spain. Enticed by Yamaha, Mino left MV. I remember the shell-shocked journalists at the Milan press conference: a combination that had made motocycling history was breaking up.
Although at the end of his career, moving from the four-stroke to the two-stroke didn't perturb him, and in '74 he took the 350 title, followed by the 500 in '75: the first title in the half-litre won by a Japanese constructor. Among Giacomo's greatest enterprises there was also his winning debut in the Daytona 200 Mile aboard the Yamaha 750 - in an incandescent race.
In Ago's unique and fascinating history, a lot of space has been taken up by tradition and technology. Protagonist of an epoch-making change, Mino was the first to use the disc brake, the first to cover his bike and suit with sponsors' trademarks, one of the first to use an integrated helmet -first in everything. Safety-minded, he wanted his racing leathers to be really wearable, convinced that a comfortable fit helped him ride; he sought increased abrasion-resistance, and requested double layers of leather on the impact surfaces: the first soft protectors.
Agostini hung up his helmet at the end of '77, after two less brilliant seasons. His last win was on August 29, 1976, at Nurburgring -which coincides with the last success of the MV Agusta 500 he managed that year in a team of his own.
A few races followed with Aurora Formula cars -today's 3000- and finally the responsibility of his own team, with more victories and titles.
Today Ago tranquilly divides his perennial family vacation between Bergamo -his lifetime home- Sardinia, Cortina and southern Spain, where he has a country estate. A shrewd administrator of his own considerable fortune, mostly invested in real estate, he's the world's wealthiest ex-rider. And this is another success
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