Hey everyone. My name is Chaz Davies. I'm 24 years old, the reigning World Supersport Champion and this season I'll race in the World Superbike Championship for ParkinGO Aprilia. I got started in bike racing through my Dad. He used to race back in the day and went on to build his dream which was a go-kart circuit. The kart circuit is my family's business and it gave me my start on 2 wheels (bicycles also!). Our house and the circuit is right on the Welsh Border in the UK. It's a rural farming area so it's great for quiet rides and getting some mega draughting off tractors. They make great lead outs!

Racing kind of happened in a steady way for me, I wasn't pressurized to go out and win but it was more of a weekend hobby for us as a family. After winning a couple of British minimoto championships our outlook changed and I soon realized that this was what I wanted to be my career. My biggest achievement to date is winning the World Supersport Championship last year. It's always been my dream to be able to call myself a World Champion and now it's fulfilled and I have the rainbow stripes to prove it! I'll be doing my best to make sure there are more as well.

My favorite race was probably way back in 2001 when I was riding in the Spanish championship at the Circuit of Jarama at 14 years old. I was riding a fairly standard bike against a lot of high level equipment and trying to get noticed to earn a ride in the World Championship. I rode my heart out from flag to flag and finished 8th. It doesn't sound like much but I have fond memories of that race because I believe I got every ounce out of myself.

My favorite ride is a 103 miler that I did at the end of 2009 in San Diego. I was hating life at the time but looking back I have great memories. I planned the ride a couple of weeks in advance before I came home for winter and wanted to hit up a few big climbs including Palomar mountain at around the 60 mile mark. Normally, the ride wouldn't have been a problem because my legs were decent, but it just so happened that a heat wave rolled in the day before and it was disgustingly hot. At 8:30am I left the coastal road and it was at 28℃/82℉, normally at that time in the morning it was never above 18℃/65℉. By the time we got to Palomar it was up to 51℃/123℉. I stuck it out and made the 20km climb through the valley and up to the top of Palomar. I think it was the slowest ascent in history! I ran out of all electrolytes, salt... everything and was having to stop every few hundred meters to kneed the cramp out of my muscles! It was truly miserable but I finished the ride and got some satisfaction and a good story out of it.

My favorite post ride food is a big bowl of brown short grain rice with some chicken or salmon and a few vegetables mixed in. Favorite food at 2am on a Saturday night is anything, usually the closest take-away wins!

My future goals are to add to my single World Championship and then head to MotoGP. I have more learn, especially stepping up a category into Superbike but it's something I relish.

The non-motorized bikes that I currently ride are an S-Works Tarmac SL3 and an S-Works Epic 29er. Both are far better than I am! The SL3 is great around where I live because we don't have that many long, steady climbs. They are all mostly short and sharp, 15-25%, so for that the SL3 is great because it's stiff and when you need to kick just a bit to get up and over the hill there is nothing wasted. I love my Epic 29er. I have read enough about the bike before I got to try it and it lived to my expectations. Again, where I ride we have quite rocky trails and the 29er rolls faster and absorbs everything just that little bit better.