Andre Villas-Boas relaxes with motorbike joyrides

Posted Sunday, October 02, 2011 by The Sun

Andre Villas-Boas relaxes with motorbike joyrides
FULL THROTTLE ...how Villas-Boas would look as a bike racer

Andre Villas-Boas has revealed how he escapes the pressures of the Premier League title race by turning into an easy rider.

Chelsea's intense young manager bristles at accusations he is a football-obsessed geek who thinks about the game morning, noon and night.

And he confesses that he likes nothing better than taking his life into his own hands by riding his motorbikes through the Portuguese mountains.

Villas-Boas, 33, revealed: "My passions are outside football and I am not one of these people who are obsessed with the game.

"I have a tremendous passion for the game but I don't live and breathe it 24 hours a day.

"Some coaches like to pretend they watch everything, but I'm not like that. When it's time to switch off, I do. I don't go home and watch second division German football.

"Football is a very strenuous business and when I get the opportunity I go back to Portugal and ride my motorbikes into the mountains with the big rocks and almost kill myself!

"I have had a few crashes in my time. I broke my arm once but I feel fantastic when I am riding my bikes. Driving is adrenaline-fuelled and that's my escape, my passion.

"I have five motorbikes back home in Portugal including a couple from the Paris-Dakar Rally. I also have a couple of trials bikes and I have a shared ownership in about 12 classic cars.

"My first bike was a 350cc heavy engine Yamaha. I took my licence and drove in a national competition when I was the Porto youth coach. That was when I crashed and broke my arm.

"I'd love to take part in the Paris-Dakar rally. That's a proper endurance race, but maybe it's something for after my career."

Shortly before taking over as Chelsea boss in the summer, Villas-Boas was invited by the Ford M-Sport team to race on one of the stages the day before the Portuguese round of the World Rally Championships. He was accompanied around the 3km test-loop at Loule by co-pilot Matthew Wilson. He also attended this year's Monaco Grand Prix and asked whether he wears a crash helmet during his mountain jaunts, he laughed: "Are you from health and safety?

"It can be a dangerous pastime. The players are not allowed to ride motorbikes. But the manager is OK. I escape the rules."

Villas-Boas will be back to his full-time job tomorrow when he takes Chelsea to bottom-of-the-table Bolton looking to close the gap on league leaders Manchester United.

AVB has remained in close contact with Owen Coyle since they took their coaching badges together in Scotland and is full of admiration for the Bolton boss.

He added: "We're always exchanging ideas. He put me under a lot of pressure to let him have Daniel Sturridge back on loan this season. There must have been 20 or 30 messages but I told him 'definitely not'.

"I'm sure he'll try again in January. But there is no chance.

"Things are not going for Bolton as Owen would want this season, that's for sure. But he's a demanding, driven and focused person and Bolton will come out of this soon.

"Bad phases can happen to anyone in football. But one or two wins and Bolton will soon be moving back up the table."