Valentino Rossi: ‘I switched on the emotions of normal people’

At the end of the day the sun goes down. Valentino Rossi has been riding through the twilight of his career for the last few seasons, so it’s no surprise that today he announced that his sun will finally dip below the horizon at Valencia in November.

And so will end the career of arguably the greatest motorcycle racer of all time, arguably the greatest motor sportsperson of all time and undoubtedly one of the greatest sportspeople of all time.

Rossi’s sun has shone for quarter of a century over the sport of motorcycle grand prix racing, which hasn’t even been going three-quarters of a century.

He has lasted longer than any other motorcycle GP rider and longer than any Formula 1 driver, despite the fact that he goes to work protected by a cowhide suit and impact-absorbent padding, instead of a carbon-fibre safety shell with inbuilt oxygen supply.

Rossi is bike racing’s Maradona, Pele and Muhammad Ali all rolled into one

It is impossible to overestimate the effect Rossi has had on motorcycling. For some years he was even bigger than the sport itself, transcending its boundaries, loved by mums, kids and grannies, as much as by petrolheads.

Some sportspersons dazzle with what they do on the track and on the pitch, others throw their light much further than that. The way they walk, the way they talk, gets inside people. That’s when sport becomes special – when it makes people laugh, makes them cry and fills their dreams, both night and day.

Few have done that better than Rossi. He has millions of mothers, millions of fathers, millions of brothers and sisters, millions of grannies and grandads.

“Sincerely, I don’t know why,” he laughed during today’s media conference at Red Bull Ring, arranged specifically for his announcement. “I was able to bring a lot of people close to motorcycle racing – I switched on the emotions of normal people.”

The fact that Diego Maradona, another sportsman who became more than just that, turned up at Misano in 2008 to kiss Rossi’s hand on the grid, like a cardinal paying homage to the Pope, tells you all you need to know.

Rossi is bike racing’s Maradona, Pele and Muhammad Ali all rolled into one, so he will leave a huge VR46-shaped hole in the sport, which may never be filled.

His racing achievements may or may not be bettered. Rossi hasn’t won as many grands prix as Giacomo Agostini won during the 1960s and 1970s, but he’s won more premier-class races than his countryman. And surely victories in the premier category count for more than victories in the minor classes, which makes him statistically the strongest rider in history.

A total of 115 victories across all three classes (89 in MotoGP and 500cc), 235 podiums (a tantalising 199 in the big class), 96 fastest laps and 65 pole positions. They’re big numbers but probably not as big as the joy he gave to people and also to himself.