Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127948
Valentino Rossi By Michael Scott Photos by Gold & Goose 26 f you are a young and impressionable teenage girl, Valentino Rossi is, quite simply, the most exciting thing to happen to bike racing ever. Not just bike racing, either. Just - well, just anything, really. The species was out in force at Mugello recently. Pits and paddock were thronged wi th little gangs of pubescent ragazzi, giggling on the run as they hunted down the teenage boy wonder - "Fast Spice," with the appeal of a pop star, and all the showmanship to go with it. . Rossi himself screeches with laughter at it all. Mind you; he screeches with laughter at pretty much anything - especiaUy at the thought that one day his enormous talent might force him to take racing seriously. "When I stop doing it for fun, then I quit," he insists. Rossi's story is well-.known. It has all the qualities of a legend in the making. Born on February 16, 1979, at Urbino, near Pesaro, close not only to the Misano circuit but also the seaside resorts around Rimini, he was the son of Graziano Rossi. And it would come as no surprise to those teenage girl fans to learn that Graziano was also; in his time, a glamor king of the GP paddocks, with success (three 250cc GP wins in succession, and some top three places in the 500cc class) and a cheerful streak of egotism as well, express~ artistically, as he was one of the very first riders to apply brightly painted designs to his helmet. Young Valentino grew up with motorcycles; there's a picture of him as an infant in his father's arms in the GP paddock, and his later 125cc-class adversary Jorge Martinez, then already racing, quipped last year: "I should have run him over when I had the chance." It was, a Graziano now says, something a father and son could do together (for his parent separated when he was still young). "I never pushed him." And the opportunities were endless, especially on the rash of "mini-moto" racing that was booming at the time at the resort go-kart tracks. It was just the fun of it that drew Valentino to those scruffy little tracks; it was his talent that brought him to the attention of Aprilia and propelled him into GP racing at the age of 17 in 1996hi first full season in the 125cc class. The next year, on a factory bike, he swept to a magnificent championship, laughing all the way through 11 race win. It was now that the Rossi popularity started to mushroom. And he played to the gallery with all the exuberance of his youth. The Rossi slow-down lap after aU of his 11 wins tha t year became a piece of thea tre, stage-managed by his active fan club. "They tell me beforehand where to stop and what we will do this time." So far, stunts have included dressing