Ibiza hotel to be named after Ángel Nieto, late MotoGP '12+1'-times world champion

LATE legendary motorcycle champion Ángel Nieto will have a hotel named after him on his home island, Ibiza – the first in the region to be opened by a national chain.

Room Mate, a firm owned by former Olympic eventer Kike Sarasola, will be taking over and renovating what used to be the classic Hotel El Puerto, aiming to turn it into a 'relaxing, informal, cosy and welcoming haven' for guests.

Its ethic is geared up to match Ángel Nieto's character, says Sarasola, a huge fan of the MotoGP star who lost his life in a quad bike crash in Ibiza in August 2017, aged 70.

The Room Mate Ángel, located in the historic quarter of Ibiza town – in the Dalt Vila – will have 228 rooms and a 500-square-metre outside terrace from which guests can sit against a backdrop of the sunset from one side, and the sunrise over the Mediterranean from the other.

“I'm particularly excited about being able to call it the 'Hotel Ángel' as a tribute to Ángel Nieto, who was an inspiration for our country and also for me personally,” says Kike.

Born in the Castilla y León province of Zamora, close to Portugal's north-eastern border, but moving with his family to Barcelona as a toddler, Nieto spent many family holidays in Ibiza and eventually settled there when he retired from his MotoGP team manager and national TV commentator rôles that followed on as a natural progression from hanging up his leathers and quitting the front line of the sport in 1986.

His second wife, Belinda, and one of his three sons, Hugo, still live on the island.

Shortly after his instant death when he and a car collided on a roundabout in Santa Eulària, Nieto's family was asked for permission to name the Jerez de la Frontera MotoGP circuit after him, which they were delighted to provide.

Although Ángel was motorcycling world champion in different categories 13 times, he always referred to his record as '12+1' out of superstition – not that he ever had to worry about luck, good or bad, during his career on the circuit.

Kike, 57 – born Enrique Sarasola Marulanda in Madrid and married for the last 14 years to Carlos Marrero, won the bronze three-day eventing European championship medal in 2001, has been national horse trials champion four times, and won fourth- and fifth-place diplomas in three consecutive Olympic games, in Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000).

As well as being the owner, founder and chairman of the resort chains Room Mate Hotels and BeMate.com, Kike is a professional TV actor – having held parts in the series Policías and the films Killer Barbys vs Dracula and Slam – and has presented his own show on DMax for the last four years, Este Hotel es un Infierno ('This Hotel is Hell'), where he is Spain's holiday-accommodation answer to outspoken restaurant saviour Gordon Ramsay, 'rescuing' disastrous or struggling resorts and getting them back on track.