Rossi: “The farewell was like having won the 10th title”

They say that Valentino Rossi chose the nº 46 because, when he was almost a child, he observed that it was worn by a Japanese rider, who raced as a guest in the home grand prix. But the reality, they say, is that he chose it for life, so much so that even his two figures add up to 10, the position in which he ended up in the last race of his life, 432, in Cheste (Valencia), because it was the bib that his father wore, Graziano Rossi, when he won the only 250cc race he ever won. You know, until the date of his farewell (11-14-21) he adds 46, well.

The truth is that the ‘Doctor’ closed, last Sunday, one of the most brilliant careers, true, with a few lucid and fortunate last years, that any athlete can monopolize. The farewell was, of course, impressive, absolute, beautiful, vibrant and with all the inhabitants of the MotoGP paddock, more than a thousand, prostrate at his feet, thanking him for everything he has done for motorcycling.

“It was a beautiful party. I thought that, in the end, the reason for retiring was to star in this party. It was as if I had won my 10th world title, the one that has been denied me for the last few years & rdquor ;, a happy, proud, smiling Valentino Rossi recognized who received the ‘grazie, Vale’ as a world recognition. Because it was, yes, after 432 grands prix, 115 victories and nine world titles.

Decaffeinated finish

The ‘Doctor’, who was lifted and paraded by his boxer flying, walking on the arms and hands extended and raised to the ceiling of all his team and friends, in a curious walk through the sky of the World Cup, recognized the day of his farewell that “If I had trained so much, so much, as I have done in my last ten years, I would still be competitive & rdquor ;. The truth is that ‘Vale’ leaves after spending four years without winning (Holland-2017 was his last victory) and not ‘champion’ for 12 years, since his last title dates from 2009.

“Valentino has marked an era in motorcycling and now it is up to the young people to try to keep this going up & rdquor ;, he said. Àlex Márquez, who was criticized by many for being the only driver not in Rossi’s farewell photo. “I was the first, I repeat, the first! that he said goodbye and thanked him, because at the end of the race, I waited for him at turn 2 of Cheste and we merged into a hug & rdquor ;.

“Valentino has enjoyed these 26 years in the World Cup a lot, he has had a great time, I don’t know how he does it because I don’t have as much fun as he does. I enjoy it, yes, but, I don’t know, I don’t have as much fun as he does & rdquor ;, he commented Francesco ‘Peak’ Bagnaia, one of the fashionable pilots and, of course, the great favorite to snatch the title from the French next season Fabio Quartararo. Bagnaia acknowledged that he had shed more than one tear in the goodbye of ‘Vale’. “I did not see him cry, but I did cry, because I remembered the moment when, at 16 years old, he was introduced to me. And the truth, that day was impressive & rdquor ;.

The Picasso of motorcycles

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Rossi, who at the farewell party to the championship in which the ‘Devil’ was crowned the new king (“I have learned so many things from Rossi that I will realize many of them in the coming years & rdquor;) was named by Carmelo Ezpeleta, head of the World Championship, ‘legend’ of motorcycling, began a new life yesterday, the one that, next February will make him the father of a girl, the result of his relationship with the model Francesca Sofia Novello and that, probably, will He will become a car driver and, who knows, if even an inhabitant of the F-1 world.

As one of his best friends and designer of all his helmets says, the artist Aldo Drudi, “Valentino is the Picasso of motorcycles & rdquor; And as such, we must hope that his temper does not fade.