My Ride, My Life: Mike Di Meglio

‘I used to only ride a bike in the garden and then I said, “Daddy I want to race, I want to do motocross races” and he said, “no no, you will have to race scooters.”  I didn’t know why I had to ride them, but I was eleven years old and immediately I started to win races.  Four years later I was in the World Championship and I’d never raced an actual race bike before.  It was crazy.’

A less conventional path saw him at the age of 16 racing against the likes of Andrea Dovizioso and future MotoGP champions, Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo in the 125cc World Championship, one of the high points of his career, but his inexperience saw him struggle as he was crashing too much.

The learning curve continued for Mike and aboard a Honda RS125R, 2005 was the year where things started to turn around as he took his first World Championship podium at the British Grand Prix at Donington Park with a masterclass in how to ride in the wet.

‘It was amazing because there was a lot of rain and I was leading the race while Julián Simón followed me.  There was so much water on the track and I felt like I was going really slow, but we were leading by 10 - 15 seconds over the other guys, so I stayed focused on the race because I knew it was a moment that I could get a podium.  On the last lap  Julián Simón overtook me for the victory and I knew I could go for it, but two years earlier I was making easy mistakes, so I said to myself, “Mike, today is a podium, we’ll take this podium and see for the victory later.”  It was a great moment to finally get on the podium in the World Championship.’

The positives of that year disappeared over the next two seasons with Mike finding that not only did you have to be quick, but you also needed a good bike and team around you to get the results.

‘The toughest moment of my career was in 2007, I was with an Italian team, we were fighting a lot, I got a lot of injuries and I broke my collarbone.  I had a few big high sides, big crashes, the bike wasn’t great and the team were pushing me to go faster and faster.  I was very tired mentally but fortunately I got in contact with Aki Ajo for the following year to get a better bike.  I had no money and I had to ask my family for help to get me into this team.  It was a case of, “let’s see, if you do a good year it means you can be a good rider, if not it’s time to stop.”  I trusted in myself, refocused and knew I could be consistent.  It was fantastic to come back after 2007.’

What a come back it was, he sealed his first ever 125cc World Championship title after taking four victories across the season, including one at his ‘home’ round at Le Mans.  Not only did the champagne flow, the famous ‘Marseillaise’ blared out around the circuit and this was the turning point in his career as he progressed up the ladder to the premier-class where he rode for two seasons with Avintia Racing.

Following that, endurance racing beckoned in 2016 and in his first year he helped the GMT94 Yamaha squad to the team’s World Championship title and Yamaha to the manufacturers’ title as a new career direction took off. Since 2018 he’s been with the F.C.C. TSR Honda France team where he’s had notable success notching up another World Championship title.

'With F.C.C. we were lucky in 2022, we didn’t take any victories but we were very consistent throughout the season.  I think the best thing is we won the title at Bol D’Or, it was amazing because I’d been so close to winning the title as a rider and I’d never had it.  In endurance you are not alone, you have three riders, you have a team and if the team is not good in the pit box, or if you make a mistake and crash, you ruin everything.  So that year we didn’t make any mistakes, we were up at the sharp end every time, I was very grateful for the team, for my teammates and myself to get this title.’

Racing at such a high level requires Mike to be race fit during the season as even though there is only four rounds, two of those are 24 hour races which requires not only physical strength, but mental too.

‘I train a lot on a motorbike and I also do karting as I try to change a lot what I race.  When you’re karting you cannot move so you need to work more on your high speed, you can feel the speed with the eyes more.  I try to train a lot with my bike on a karting track, as it’s very small you need to move a lot and you need to be very precise with the line. When you race on a big track it’s so large and if you don’t choose the right line you can lose time, so with a karting track you need to be so precise. Normally when I train there can be nearly 30 people on track and I have to pass smoothly but also keep the speed for a decent lap time… and not get angry if the lap time is not fast!’

He still lives in Toulouse, is a husband and father to two children, even has a pet parrot and when not on a track can be found out on his pushbike riding around the stunning Occitanie region of France.

‘With the cycling I also train a lot because it can be challenging depending on what I want to do.  Sometimes I’m on a road which I ride just up and down doing some exercises for the heart or I’ll go for a long ride where it’s very flat. Cycling is good because you are alone and many times when I, less so now, was in the World Championship, after a bad race you would have many occasions to go for a ride and you’d go for an hour or so and be thinking that you didn’t do well and then afterwards your mind would be fresh and you’d come back feeling much better.’

With another season in the bag, it’s easy to forget that Mike is still only 36 years of age having raced at World Championship level for twenty years.

‘When I ride, the sensation I feel is to be free, to push your limit and also even when you are afraid and you think you know where the limit is, it’s the need to go past this point.  Especially when you are young you don’t know where the limit is and when you go past it sometimes a crash happens, so it’s more to play with the limit of what the bike can do.  One word to explain the sensation is, amazing.’