Julian Simon 2009 125cc World Champion

Being a world champion in any sport has its good moments as well as its great moments and newly crowned 125cc MotoGP World Champion Julian Simon found this out as he made his way down the street in his hometown of Villacanas, Spain. Greeted by thousands of adoring fans that lined the street to cheer for their hero, Simon got a different view of the people he grew up around and his smiles told the story as he took in the warm energy of the crowds and gave it back with his smile.

Julian Simon is a rising star of Sportbike racing

Riding for Bancaja Aspar, Simon became the 2009 MotoGP 125cc World Champion two weeks ago with a stunning victory in Australia and then displayed his dominance again a week later by taking the 125cc race in Malaysia on Sunday. He then got on a plane and headed back to his hometown and a pleasant surprise. He surely expected a few people to show up to greet him and celebrate his victory but the thousands of fans that showed up were obviously a surprise for him.

He’s at home preparing for the final race of the 2009 125cc season, the race in Valencia, and enjoying the time he has to celebrate his victory with family and friends. The pride his fellow towns’ people and family feel over his winning the 125cc world championship is obvious with all the celebrations and events taking place around his hometown. The warmth of the people is amazing to witness and this young Spaniard is lucky to be loved by the people he obviously respects.

Simon and his team were greeted at town hall by the mayor of Villacanas, Santiago Garcia Aranda, and warmly greeted with an acknowledgement of Simon’s achievement. This celebration is a really nice welcome and beautifully way to celebrate an achievement that takes years of training, sacrifice and practice to accomplish.

Simon will now finish the year and prepare for next year and the challenge of repeating his world championship, a feat that is probably going to be more difficult than his first world championship win. For there’s only one thing more difficult than winning and that’s doing it again and again. Can Simon win again next year, without a doubt, he had a great year and he’s still learning to race and ride and improving all the time. Will he be heading to the premier class in the future? At the moment no word has arrived on the wire about this but it wouldn’t surprise me.

“Image: Zuma Press”