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"Urbino Legend", published in The Australian Way (Melbourne), September 2001
Racing motorbikes has made a pop star of Italian Valentino Rossi. The 22-year-old, two-time world champion can�t walk anywhere in his own country without getting mobbed. �No. Impossible. Everywhere,� he offers in his ever-improving English. �When I go out it is like work. Autograph and photograph for all.� Things aren�t much better for the handsome young Valentino in a lot of other places either. His fearless feats on two wheels have cast him as a genuine hero in the eyes of race fans the world over, many considering him the most naturally gifted and fearless competitor to grace motorsport since the late Formula 1 champ Ayrton Senna. Although it would be wrong to say Valentino learned to ride a motorbike before he could walk, only the blink of an eye passed between the babe mastering both acts of balance. The son of former Grand Prix racer and 1970s� Italian idol, Graziano Rossi, Valentino literally grew up surrounded by race machines and riders, was whizzing around on his own mini-moto by two-and-a-half, had started winning major races in Italy by age 11. By 18, Valentino was world champion in the 125cc class. Two years later, in 1999, he was the 250cc world champion. By the end of this year�s season, he hopes to have fulfilled his dream of being crowned world champion in the sport�s premier class, the 500cc Grand Prix series. Next month�s Qantas Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, held at the seaside Phillip Island track which lies 140 kilometres south-east of Melbourne, Victoria, is one of Rossi�s favourite stops on the globe-trotting Grand Prix circus. �Phillip Island is very exciting and a very technical and difficult race track,� he explains. �I like Phillip Island. I like not only the race track but also the position and the atmosphere.� And you could say Valentino is accustomed to being surrounded by Aussies. With a solitary exception, his Italian-sponsored, Japanese motorbike team is staffed entirely by Australians, from team boss Jerry Burgess through to the squad�s on-call guru, five-time 500cc world champion Mick Doohan. �All Australian and all very good guys,� enthuses Valentino. �Funny. I like Australian people. Australians are more like us, like Italians. �And everyone like Mick. He�s very important because he win five 500 titles and he win with my bike, the same bike I ride now. So it�s important to have one like Mick in the pits.� Valentino jokes that he�s glad he never had to race Mick. �He would have been very hard to beat, so I am lucky.� But it�s not like the youngster is short in the adversaries department. The intense rivalry this season between Valentino Rossi and Massimiliano (Max) Biaggi _ a 30-year-old, four-time 250cc world champion from Rome _ has produced one of the most intense, spiteful battles that the 500cc championship has ever seen. The tone of things to come was set early in the year, at the first race in Japan. A rough and tumble affair, Valentino was angered when, as he went to pass Biaggi for the race lead, his combatant seemingly tried to elbow the youngster off his bike. Valentino eventually got through and, going into a corner at over 200 kilometres per hour, lifted a hand off his handlebars to give the new second place man the finger. The behaviour of both men led the president of the sport�s governing body (the Federation Internationale Motocycliste) to publish an open letter telling the two Italians to cool it. But worse was to come. As the pair left the podium of the Spanish Grand Prix in June (Valentino again beating Biaggi to the chequered flag), heated words were passed, leading to a physical altercation. This time both riders received an official warning from the FIM for acting in a manner �prejudicial to the interests of the sport�. They were also forced to publicly kiss and make up. It�s a rivalry that dates back to long before the two actually ever raced each other. In his teenage years, Valentino was as famous for his pranks and multi-coloured hair-dos as he was for his skill. As soon as he arrived on the international scene, he started taunting Biaggi, who at the time was generally accepted as Italy�s finest rider. The youngster even mimicked his elder on national Italian TV. Valentino has matured somewhat since then. So much so that he is now diplomatic on the subject of Biaggi. But his dislike of the man still shines through. �For Biaggi I think it is very important to have another one because he gives his best if he has someone like me,� suggests Valentino with all seriousness. �If not, he don�t give his best. For me it�s different. I don�t like to fight with him because he�s not clean.� But is it true, as Valentino has said in the past, that he hated Biaggi even as a schoolboy, watching the Grands Prix at home on TV? �Yes, it�s true. I think it�s normal. I think it is not possible to be friends with all. Someone you like, someone you don�t like. I don�t know why.� When Australian Way caught up with Valentino Rossi in Japan, the day after he took out the prestigious Suzuka eight-hour endurance race (which doesn�t count towards the world championship), he and Biaggi were only five points apart in their chase for the world title with seven races to go. A race win is worth 25 points. Even this far out, Valentino is certain the championship won�t be decided until the final race of the year, held in Brazil in early November. �For sure the championship go to the end. Very close,� he says. �For sure Max is very hard to beat.� Whether or not this is the year that Valentino Rossi manages to take out the 500cc world crown, anyone who has ever seen this young man ride a bike knows it�s only a matter of time before he is once again crowned world champion.
