Sylvain Guintoli
Born on 24 June 1982 in Montélimar, Sylvain Guintoli is without doubt one of the French riders with the most atypical career.
Now living in England, where he is married and the father of six children, the Drôme native began riding motorcycles at the age of four on the bike his father, a schoolteacher, had built for him. At the age of 11, Sylvain trained on a Kawasaki 60 KX. First scooter races at 12, first French championship title at 13... Then came the Aprilia Cup, the 125cc French Championship and his 250cc Grand Prix debut alongside Randy de Puniet with Jean-Claude Besse's team in 2001.
After his reserve season with Tech 3, where he became a 500cc test rider, the Drômois returned to the 250cc class without much success.
He developed a reputation as a gifted youngster, but one too dilettante to confirm his talent at the highest level. In 2006, however, he made the step up to MotoGP with Hervé Poncharal's team. He then spent a season on a Ducati Pramac before finding himself on the sidelines.
He then decided to enter the British Superbike Championship, where he was seriously injured at the start of the season when he was hit by Joshua Brooks.
This didn't stop him from returning to the World Championship the following year on an Alstare Suzuki. He then switched to a Ducati, with which he took his first victories in 2012.
The following year Sylvain Guintoli was recruited by the Aprilia team to replace Max Biaggi, and finished his first season with the RSV4 in third place.
A year later he climbed to the top step of the podium to become only the second French rider in Superbike history to win the World Championship, proving that there are a thousand ways to get to the top.
After two final seasons in WSBK on a Honda and then a Yamaha, he joined the Suzuki MotoGP team as a test rider. At the same time he raced in the World Endurance Championship with SERT Yoshimura. In 2021 he won another world title alongside Gregg Black and Xavier Siméon. Last winter Sylvain Guintoli signed a contract with BMW to develop the German WSBK bike and compete in the EWC with the BMW Motorrad team under the direction of Werner Daemen