In 2001, in Cannes, France, a young Johann Zarco watched Valentino Rossi, at what was the beginning of the premier class ‘Rossi era’, on the screen and thought “he’s doing like me.” In his mind, it wasn’t he who was doing like the professional rider winning on the Grand Prix stage.

Before that day though, growing up in the French Riviera, Zarco’s two-wheel journey began when he saw a pocket bike in a shop window and told his dad that this was what he really needed. Although, he never dreamed or thought that riding bikes would be his life as he had no idea that racing world existed until that day in 2001 where he saw Rossi on the television.

It was a few years after this in around 2004/5 that racing became more important in the Frenchman’s life, as he now had a coach and someone preparing his bikes for him. As now Johann “realised that now I can have a target and push for it and hope to be in the World Championship.” An opportunity presented itself in 2008 when Gábor Talmácsi, the only Hungarian to have won a road racing World Championship (125cc 2007), invited Zarco to test. “I proved that I could compete with him and that was an amazing souvenir…showing this capacity gave me the opportunity to go to the World Championship for the next year.”

The journey since might have had its ups and downs, but Zarco has certainly had his fair share of success and in considered to be one of the most successful French riders with two Moto2 titles, the first rider to claim two consecutive Moto2 championships since its introduction in 2010, and a MotoGP race win at Australia in 2023. In addition to this, he was also one of the riders for Team HRC at the 2024 Suzuka 8 Hours race, helping the team achieve their third consecutive victory at Suzuka and Honda’s 30^th win at the Japanese event.

This race win also saw the return of the famous ‘Zarco backflip’, which in the Frenchman’s own words “was extreme, but I could do it.” It became known as his signature celebration throughout his run of Moto2 victories, where he would perform the backflip off his bike, off tyre walls and sometimes right in front of the attending crowd. After Suzuka, the podium could also be added to this list.

This season has seen Johann race as part of Lucio Cecchinello’s LCR Team, where he has often been the top Honda at MotoGP weekends. The love for racing and motorcycles doesn’t seem to be coming to an end anytime soon with another year left on his contract with LCR and, as Zarco himself says: “I love to use the motorbike overall to be free, to move as I want.”