Superbiker Ana Carrasco: She drives like a girl - and becomes world champion with boys

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Ana Carrasco

Photo: 

Javier Cebollada / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

Ana Carrasco knows this moment, this moment shortly after she has crossed the finish line and then takes off her helmet - and in which many newbies still clink, because they were expecting a man under the gear.

That is still completely normal, says the 23-year-old in an interview with SPIEGEL.

"But, that doesn't mean that it has to stay that way forever."

Carrasco is the only rider in the Supersport 300 class for near-series motorcycles.

In 2018 she won the world title.

Carrasco could ride a motorcycle before she learned to ride a bike.

She was three years old when she first sat on a motorcycle, one of those electrically powered children's models.

And she was in love right away.

When she was four years old she really wanted to race, but wasn't allowed to.

"I cried for three days until they said yes," says the 23-year-old in a recently published documentary about her unique path.

From then on she was unstoppable.

A reporter once asked her why she drives so well.

"I accelerate early and brake late," replied young Ana.

Today Carrasco says: "I feel free on the bike, I am alone, I can be who I am, I love that feeling."

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Ana Carrasco was a little girl on a motorcycle

Photo: 

Provec Racing

At 14, Carrasco became the first woman to win the Spanish championship in the 125cc class.

In 2013 she made the jump to a professional racing team.

Before that, her father had always accompanied her, and the whole family, her parents and two siblings, were often in the motorhome on their way to the next race track.

But after switching to the professional field, she was on her own.

A difficult time, the Spaniard recalls.

She was always the exotic before.

But they were still children.

They let her do it, little Ana.

At some point this girl would realize that motorcycling is not for her.

But it was not like that.

On the contrary.

Carrasco wanted to keep going, find a team, win races, become world champion.

"Ride like a girl" became her motto

The other drivers, those who are told: If you can't even win against a girl, then you can stop right away - those young men were a problem.

But the hardest thing was "to find a team that believes that I can win".

A team that believes in a world champion in male-dominated motorcycle racing.

After three years in Moto3, she got the chance she'd been waiting for in 2017, becoming the first woman to win a World Championship run in the Supersport 300 World Championship in September.

"I knew I could win, but now everyone else saw it too," said Carrasco.

"At that moment I didn't feel like a girl on a motorcycle anymore, now I was a pilot."

One to watch out for.

The saying: "You drive like a girl" she quickly reversed: "Ride like a girl" became the motto of the Spaniard.

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Ana Carrasco drives up

Photo: 

Jamie Morris / Provec Racing

2018 was to be the season in which Carrasco made history again.

She got off to a strong start, leading the championship standings confidently after half of the races.

Then the organizers changed the regulations.

They raised the permissible driver weight so that the machines of lighter pilots had to be equipped with additional ballast.

For Carrasco this meant: Your Kawasaki Ninja 400 had to weigh twelve kilograms more.

A problem for the perfectionist.

"You have twelve kilograms of dead mass, always in the same place, but the motorcycle moves a lot, so I couldn't handle that at first."

Twelve kilograms of muscle mass help steer and steer, but twelve kilograms of ballast change the center of gravity of the machine and make cornering and braking more difficult.

"In addition, the data we had from the tests were now unusable. We started from scratch on every track."

In the upcoming races, the then 21-year-old, who had previously looked like the safe world champion because of her speed, only managed little, her lead over the pursuers shrank.

In the decisive race she was ten points ahead of Scott Deroue.

The Dutchman would start from pole, Carrasco from 25th place. If Deroue won, Carrasco would have to finish third.

But Deroue dropped out with problems with the gear shift, but Carrasco made up one place after the other and became the first woman to win the title at a road world championship.

One point ahead.

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In 2018 Ana Carrasco became the first woman to win a road world championship title

Photo: 

Graeme Brown / Provec Racing

Carrasco finished last season in third place.

She has done well this year too and was fifth after the fourth lap.

Before her home race in Barcelona, ​​she crashed during a test and lost control in a gravel corner.

For Carrasco a "normal fall, one of those who have been seen a hundred times", nothing special.

"The problem was that I landed on my head and twisted my entire body," as she wrote to SPIEGEL.

Fractures in three vertebrae had to be operated on, followed by three months of rehabilitation.

She is certain: "In 2021 I will win races again."

Ana Carrasco will probably still be the only woman among the many helmets.

But she also says that motorcycling has changed in the years since she started.

"There are a lot of women within the series, in the teams, in the medical field, in the organization. A lot is moving. It's no longer a man's world. We are many," says Carrasco.

"Just not on the track."

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