From Valentino Rossi’s nemesis to a Supervivientes contestant: Toni Elías’s new life

After a long career in motorcycling, with major successes to his name, Elias is putting himself to the test in a reality show.

October 15, 2006, Estoril circuit, penultimate MotoGP race of the calendar: Toni Elias pips Valentino Rossi by 2 thousandths and takes his first and only victory in the premier class of the World Championship. Looking at the outcome of that championship, won by Nicky Hayden by 5 points, that sting proved very costly for the Italian rider, who had nonetheless arrived at the final Grand Prix in Valencia with an 8-point lead.

That is the most remembered episode of 2006, but there was another one that the Doctor never forgot: in the season opener at Jerez, it was Elias who made him crash in the early stages. The then Yamaha rider managed to get back on the bike and finish fourteenth at the line, but he lost a lot of points that later proved decisive. If being beaten at the finish line is something that can be accepted, albeit painfully, being taken out by a rival generates a lot of anger.

Obviously, Elias’s career cannot be summed up by those two episodes involving Valentino Rossi. There was much more. He made his World Championship debut in 1999, contesting three 125 races as a wild card and then competing full-time in the category until 2001, a year he finished third in the standings (2 wins) behind champion Manuel Poggiali and Yōichi Ui. In 2002 he stepped up to 250, where he stayed for three years, placing fourth, third, and fourth respectively.

After 7 wins in what was then the intermediate class, he moved up to MotoGP racing with the following teams: Fortuna Yamaha (2005), Fortuna Gresini Honda (2006, 2007, 2009), Alice (2008), LCR Honda (2011). A total of 6 podiums. In 2010 he was crowned Moto2 world champion, the first of the newly created category (formerly 250). He rode a Moriwaki MD600 for the Gresini Racing team. He also raced in the middle class in 2012 (contract with Mapfre Aspar terminated after the Mugello race, then three Grands Prix as Héctor Barberá’s replacement in the Pramac MotoGP team) and in 2013 (left the Blusens Avintia team after the Silverstone race).

In 2013 he ended the season in the Superbike World Championship, stepping onto the Aprilia RSV4 Factory of the Red Devils Roma team in place of Michel Fabrizio. In 2014 he raced for the same squad and in 2015 he had his last MotoGP experience, racing at Indianapolis as Karel Abraham’s replacement on the AB Motoracing team’s Honda and then replacing Claudio Corti on the Forward Yamaha for the final five Grands Prix.

In 2016 Elias decided to fly to the United States and take part in the MotoAmerica Superbike championship, where he was a major protagonist until 2020 with the Yoshimura team’s Suzuki GSX-R1000: one title won (2017) and three runner-up finishes. After announcing his retirement, in 2021 he returned to race in the category and only later finally hung up his helmet.

In 2024 he returned to the World Championship as a riders’ coach for the Gresini team in Moto2 and MotoE. In August of the same year he was then announced as coach and technical consultant for the Preicanos team, again in Moto2. After that experience ended, the 42-year-old Elias is now ready for a totally different challenge: in recent hours he has been officially announced as a new contestant in the 2026 edition of the Spanish reality show Supervivientes. One of his former rivals did the same in 2022, taking part in the Italian version of the same program (L’Isola dei Famosi): Marco Melandri. This time too, everything will take place in Honduras. A completely new challenge for Toni.