The other title lost
In the triumphal career of Valentino Rossi amidst so many victories there were also some bitter misses. Twice the Doctor lost the world title at the last race of the seasonmoreover in both cases arriving at the top of the championship on the eve of the final round. If of what happened in the 2015 – on the Rossi-Lorenzo-Marquez axis – however, a lot has been said and written, less ‘talked about’ is the 2006 season finalewhen after five world titles in a row Rossi abdicated in favor of the American Nicky Hayden.
Ups and downs
In the podcast managed by his friend and colleague Andrea Migno, Mig BabolRossi returned to that bitter defeat by admitting some of his responsibilities, starting with a certain ‘satisfaction’ experienced after becoming champion for five consecutive years: “I have many regrets about 2006 – confessed #46 – and I can say after many years that, after having won a lot of races and a lot of world championships in a row, in 2006 I had given up a bit. Not really given up, but my regret is that I probably could have given more. But after the five titles won in a row I lacked the fire inside.”.
Rossi’s season that year was full of ups and downswith some scorching ‘blows’ like the broken engine at Le Mans while he was leading the race: “There I immediately thought that I would remember those points lost at the end of the year.”said the nine-time world champion. The other background of Valencia is the sprint lost in Portugal by five thousandths with Toni Elias: “A bad feeling“, Rossi’s observation. With those five more points Valentino would have actually won that championship too.
Beastly Sunday
In reference to the Valencia race, Rossi admitted that – thanks to his eight-point lead and a dominated weekend until Saturday – his and his work group’s feeling was that of having already won: “Saturday night we thought ‘damn, it’s won. It’s done now“. The next day however, everything was reversed: “From Sunday morning, however, I began to stop moving forward – Rossi said again – I made a mistake at the start and instead Hayden started strong and then I wasn’t in the race. I was struggling a lot, the bike closed in front of me and I was going really slowly. I was in trouble, until I crashed at turn 2“.
There first real defeat suffered It had a very harsh impact on Rossi, but it was useful in bringing him back to the top in the two-year period 2008-2009: “That was a clean break and another phase of my career began. Up until then I had been invincible. That was truly a huge disappointment: I stayed at home for ten days, without going out, tossing and turning in bed“, he concluded.
#Rossi #regret