Agostini and Cooper pay tribute to friend and rival Phil Read

Tributes from the big names in road racing, including the likes of Giacomo Agostini and John Cooper, plus Peter Duke and Paul Butler, have marked the career and achievements of Phil Read.

Here are their recollections of one of the world’s greatest riders:

Giacomo Agostini, speaking to bikesportnews from his home in Bergamo, talked of his shock in hearing the news having just seen Phil Read at an event in Assen a couple of weeks earlier:

“OK he was not in good condition, but I did not think he was very close to finishing his life. He wasn’t riding a bike, but we were talking about things gone past, a lot of bullshit but good fun.

“He was a great rider and very aggressive. We were both trying to be the idol of the people and they like to see the battle. And when he rode for MV, and I had left my Italian friends behind to go to Yamaha it was good for both but occasionally we had a little ‘discussion.’

“But we always said “Hello” to each other and sometimes had dinner together. It’s important to stay friendly but we may not be gentleman all the time especially when you want to win! When I was at a race at Brands Hatch, he invited me to his home which was very nice and outside was a Rolls Royce. I must say I was a little jealous.

And I also remember one morning at Francorchamps we had breakfast together and he ate boiled eggs telling me that that if I ate eggs I would go faster. So, I did.”

Peter Duke recalled the time when his father, the great Geoff Duke, was became manager of the Gilera team which made a comeback in 1963 in an effort to take on MV which by that time had Hailwood on its books. Derek Minter and John Hartle were hired but Minter was injured in a Brands Hatch crash in which Dave Downer was killed and Phil