In recent years there have been duels, all very heated and spectacular, with Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez. But the first, true, great rivalry of Valentino Rossi, the original, remains the one that opposed the sample of Tavullia to Max Biaggi. An all-Italian duel, which began when the two were not even racing in the same championship, and ended with many memorable challenges between 500 and MotoGP. Most of the battles were won by Rossi, with Biaggi second in the world championship standings behind his rival in 2001 and 2002 and third in 2003 and 2004. That – 2004 – should have been the year of the great rematch, with the passage of the Doctor from Honda to Yamaha, while the four-time 250 champion had made the reverse path the year before.
The most memorable race of that season was certainly the first, run at Welkom, in South Africa, in which Rossi managed to establish himself on the first blow on his new M1. A GP that became legendary for the endless series of overtaking and counter-overtaking that exchanged # 3 and # 46, leaving all the other riders on the track several seconds behind. That success gave the reigning world champion the momentum needed to get the better of the seasoned Honda patrol. On the occasion of Rossi’s retirement from MotoGP, who raced his last MotoGP race in Valencia on Sunday, Max Biaggi wanted to tell a funny anecdote about that unforgettable sporting afternoon.
The Roman has in fact confessed to having badly counted the laps of the race that day. For this he did not have time to attempt a desperate attack on his opponent during what was effectively the last lap. “I really like to remember Welkom 2004 – wrote Biaggi in a short article published on Gazzetta dello Sport – even though he won and I was second. Only a few years ago I decided to tell that that last lap I had prepared to attack it, I never did it because … crossing the finish line I realized that the race was over. I thought there was another round, seeing the checkered flag I was shocked. Looking back on it, I’m still pissed off now. Maybe he would have won it anyway, but surely I would have tried“.
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