‘Rossi’s doing it for the love of racing bikes’
400 GP starts later there’s just no stopping the boy from Tavullia
Without stating the obvious, it’s magnificent isn’t it. 400 GP starts for Valentino. The man is a goliath.
I was looking at his Instagram feed the other day and it was absolutely full of pictures of him completely sideways on a 450 Yamaha at his ranch with his mates. He’s got everything you could ever imagine: money, family, land, friends, but he still loves riding a bike. People still go on about him stopping, but he isn’t going to stop racing. It’s like McWilliams
‘MCWILLIAMS IS THE SAME, HE’D DESTROY YOU ON ANY BIKE’
won’t stop, he’s 55 but he’d destroy you. He’d destroy you on a push bike, a motocross bike, a classic. It’s the same for Bayliss, he’s another one that refuses to lie down.
It’s fair to say that Rossi is having a hard time on the Yamaha, especially with Quartararo doing what he’s doing. But all it’ll take is one win and you can forget about the fourths, fifths and slip offs. Why is he there? No one is forcing him, he’s there because he wants to be there. You can’t offer him any more money.
At the moment there is so much yellow and support from him in the grandstands but when the day does come that he retires the fans will accept it and jump on to someone else like Marquez. I’ve seen it happen myself with me and Peter Hickman!
To do 400 GPs is incredible, but I bet he still gets nervous, gets butterflies when he’s on the start line. It doesn’t matter who you are, you’re nervous.
I have a bit of banter with him on WhatsApp, but whenever we speak I’ll ask him what he’s been doing and he’s been riding or maybe karting, but mainly bikes. Put simply he loves motorbikes.