Rossi gives back to the sport he’s in love with

– Italian motorcycling legend Valentino Rossi (below) says he has discovered the fountain of youth in his VR46 Riders Academy as he aspires to continue competing at the highest level past his 40th birthday today.

“Working with young people keeps me young,” said the nine-time world champion who set up the academy near his home town of Tavullia in 2013 to help aspiring young riders and revive the ailing MotoGP sector in Italy.

Five years on, the Yahama rider, also known as “The Doctor,” is competing against two of his proteges – Franco Morbidelli and Francesco Bagnaia.

Three of the six Italians who will compete in the first Grand Prix of the season on March 10 in Qatar train on a dirt track circuit at Rossi’s “Motor Ranch” at Tavullia, a village in eastern Italy where the local hero grew up.

Forming two oval circuits, the 2.4km track stands out in the valley against a backdrop of vineyards and olive groves.

In this unlikely location 11 aspiring riders train alongside their idol, during long “American-style” sessions – two eliminations on each passage before a final four.

Next season, they will all be competing at the world championships in MotoGP, Moto2 or Moto3.

“The original idea of the Academy was to bring Italian motorcycling back to where it was 15 years ago, when we were on top,” Alessio Salucci, a childhood friend and righthand man of Rossi, now the academy’s sporting director, told AFP.

The ranch is located on the site of an abandoned gypsum quarry, where Rossi used to train with his friends.

Rossi enjoyed working within a group so much that he decided to convert an abandoned farmhouse and start the Academy on 65 hectares of his father’s land.

The business has grown to such a point that there are now 12 riders working at the academy.

Rossi’s lifestyle provides the model for the aspiring riders.

Eleven mini-Valentinos work out and compete alongside the maestro and have assess to his personal doctors, dieticians and trainer Carlo Casabianca. – AFP