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/646962
VOL. 53 ISSUE 8 MARCH 1, 2016 P105 Garry Hocking, Mike Hailwood. Giacomo Agostini has more GP wins—122 to 112; a figure Rossi will find hard to match, given his 37 years of age and the strength of the younger guys. But not impossible, especially should he decide to renew his contract into 2017. His record for wins-per-season in his heyday is 11 (2001, '02 and '05); but his season average over the last three years is less than three. Angel Nieto has a longer career, and 13 championships to Rossi's nine, all in the bottom two classes, but representing active grand prix competition for fully 22 years. Ah, but Nieto's winning career spanned just 16 years (Agostini's but 11). Rossi's is up to 19, and still counting. It's all games with statistics, but it's a good time to celebrate Valentino, among the other GOATs, and everything he and they have meant, not just to rac- ing but to all of us as fans. It was impossible not to notice Valentino when he turned up to play in a Japanese-dominated 125 class on 1997. He had such fun with them that he adopted the nickname Rossifumi. Won his first race at Brno, won the title next year. Rossi was in your face from the start: long Prince Valiant hair, cackling laugh, and ubiquitous. He spent plenty of time in the pressroom. It was only later he learned that journalists (espe- cially Italians) value a good story more than a convenient friend- ship. He'd already adopted a more wary approach by the time one writer particularly annoyed him, picking on his GP-winner father Graziano's eccentric habit of sleeping in his car at race tracks. The article mentioned the word "gypsy." Rossi was outraged, re- fused to speak to him again, and not long afterwards that reporter lost the job. This was an early indication of his growing power. It hasn't stopped growing, and now reaches far beyond his native Italy. Rossi is a worldwide force, and the size and strength of the marketing side of his VR46 brand is testimony to that, and to his commercial acumen. So what happened to the carefree teenager? Well, he passed through the phases of dying his hair all colors of the rainbow, and introducing slap- stick pantomime performances to celebrate each race win, as he powered through 250s to join the big guys and win the last 500cc two-stroke titles. Now the funster started to show a different side—a vicious skill with mind games that meant most of his competitors were beaten before the green light. With scornful humor he made a laughing stock of Max Biaggi, and quite took Sete Gibernau to pieces. Marco Melandri recalled to me how they had been firm friends until he made the mistake of beating him five times in 2005 and '06 on a 500. Unforgivable, and unforgiven. To the world at large, it only made him more of a hero. Every- body loves a winner. And when the disastrous Ducati dream turned badly wrong, they loved him even though he wasn't win- ning. Looking back over the years, Rossi has been a subject of this column far more than any other rider. Quite rightly, you might think. So here's another one, as the increasingly grizzled veteran embarks on year 20. Wow. And it must end with a ques- tion that has also been oft repeated over the years: since Rossi is clearly so much bigger than the sport, what will happen to it when he finally does retire? Ironically, the spite and malice that he unleashed on Marc Mar- quez, his most obvious succes- sor, at the end of last year might help ease the passage. This time, though many fans were blindly loyal, a sour taste polarized interest, with a new focus on Marquez. Let's see if the kid can carry it half as well as Valentino. CN