MotoGP riders travel all over the world in pursuit of titles, but they don’t normally do it barefoot.
However, former Moto2 star Axel Pons has given up his leathers for an occasional pair of Crocs, and astonishingly walked from Barcelona to Pakistan.
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Having competed in the Moto3 and Moto2 feeder series from 2008 to 2017, Pons didn’t exactly impress, but maintained aspirations of graduating to MotoGP thanks to his double world champion father and team owner, Sito Pons.
Yet despite a solid career in motorbike racing and also modelling, the now 33-year-old put it behind him and threw his shoes away six years ago in an attempt to ‘complete the union with Allah or God’.
In July a Pakistani YouTuber interviewed a barefooted tourist hiking roadside by himself, but only now has the video been picked up and identified as Pons.
In it the former racer says he’s been walking for three years, and 15 months ago decided to make the arduous journey from Spain to Pakistan.
Pons adds that his travels have taken him through ten countries, and his next target is China, but visa issues have been problematic.
In another clip that’s since surfaced, he explains why he gave up on his former life, saying: “I started to be slower and slower and slower, until I started to go through the world slowly, appreciating the details of life.”
“We only had the desire to complete the union with Allah or God, and this is our way of praying and practicing; walking.”
The story lit up Pons’ native Spain, and motorsport.com reached out to his father who felt the need to defend his son over some of the more negative reactions, including a story that he’d been taken into custody.
Sito Pons said: “Axel is fine and has never been arrested. He handed over the paperwork to the Pakistani agency that was in charge of managing the visa to be able to enter India.
“What Axel is doing seems extraordinary to me and shows incredible bravery and courage. It will be two years since he left Barcelona in March, always on foot.
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“He began to explain to us that he needed to walk, see the world, understand the philosophy of life, of religions, and he began his journey.
“Every day he gets up at five in the morning, does meditation and yoga, and goes for a walk. You need a lot of discipline, plus he doesn’t go to hotels and only travels with a backpack, with the bare minimum.
“His idea has always been to reach India on foot. The problem is that the border between Pakistan and India is closed. So he decided to go to the Himalayas and spent five months there.
“People started looking for him, taking photos and talking to him, quite a story, just what he didn’t want: he became famous and well-known there, and now it’s happening to him here.
“It’s so surprising and so amazing what he’s doing that it was predictable that it would go viral in Europe . And we’ve already seen what’s happened in recent days, it’s been everywhere, fortunately he’s not aware of what’s happening here.”
Not just defending his son, Sito went on to express his pride over Axel’s journey, and revealed that he even joined for part of it at the age of 65.
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“Whenever he can get online, he calls us and explains what he’s doing,” he said. “Some adventures are extraordinary.
“I remember that when I had been walking for a few months, I wanted to share a little piece of his experience with him , and in one of his calls I told him that I was going to go see him, that was in July 2023.
“He told me he was in North Macedonia and gave me directions on how to find him. It wasn’t easy to find him, but I managed to do so and we spent a week together, walking, talking, sleeping in the forest. It was an unforgettable experience.
“What bothers me is the little respect some have for the lives of others, the lies, and the fact that people talk without having any kind of information . A great deal of interest has been created, and for some an alarm that is false. Axel is making his own way.”
Asked if his son was aware of the new media attention, he said: “It’s funny, because he doesn’t use social media at all, that’s exactly what he doesn’t want, none of that.
“But it’s having the opposite effect, since they did an interview with him in Pakistan, just when he arrived in the Himalayan area, and that video has had millions of views around the world.
“Now he’s become quite a character and people seek him out to talk to him and get to know him.
“What Axel is doing is a feat and very few people in the world can say they have done anything like it. It is something so unique and surprising that I told my wife months ago that this was going to explode here in Europe. It is such an incredible story that when people find out about it, they will be interested, for sure.”
During his Moto2 and Moto3 career, Axel Pons recorded a best result of sixth at the 2016 Italian Grand Prix.
He also competed against world champions Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia, recording 179 points in 144 races.