Valentino Rossi autobiography

This 288 page book goes into details of life of Valentino Rossi, one of the best MotoGP racers ever. Autobiography provides inside details of both on-track and off-track life of living motorcycle legend, allowing reader to get better understanding of life and achievement of Valentino Rossi.
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2007-08-31  Rider claims after day 1 in Misano
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On a day of unprecedented rainfall that saw the afternoon practice sessions canceled by Race Direction, riders did not have too much chance to learn Misano circuit and adjust their machines for Sunday's race. Read their impressions after the first day in Misano. Marco Melandri - 1st I’m really happy – I didn’t think I would be so comfortable on the bike having not ridden it properly for almost two months (since Laguna). Two days ago I was very worried because I was in a bad way but thankfully this morning I felt better. The wet conditions didn’t put too much stress on my neck because there isn’t the hard braking that you have in the dry. I was really desperate to get back on track and I enjoyed it. The bike is working well and I found a good feeling straight away. I know Misano track but with the changes they made and the reverse direction it feels completely new. The fast part is particularly difficult to understand but I think this is where the rider can make the difference. Tomorrow could be tricky because of the amount of dirt that the rain brought onto the track. Valentino Rossi - 2nd Unfortunately we had very bad weather today but this morning my first impressions of the track were good, better than when I came here to do some laps with the safety commission on a street bike. I think they've done a very good job with the bumps; we asked them to resurface another time and now it's not so bad. Of course in the wet we're not riding at the maximum, but it seems okay and I was quite happy. Because of the rain we lost two hours, which makes things more difficult for everyone, but we have an extra hour tomorrow and the forecast is much better so I hope that we will get some dry time. My performance this morning was quite good, we tried a new rain tyre on the rear and it worked well. Melandri was quite far ahead but anyway I'm quite happy. Of course it's another story tomorrow in the dry, but I think we have some more improvements for the dry setting as well so I am looking forward to it. Casey Stoner - 3rd I had a small problem this morning, I made a mistake and crashed, even though I was being very careful at that point of the track because I had seen a lot of 125 riders crashing and running wide there, so it came as a big surprise to me. For the rest of the session we only had medium tyres so it wasn't possible to ride with so much confidence. I was expecting this afternoon to be dry but it was the complete opposite - in the end there was enough water on the track in some places to go swimming! I think we could have had a good day today, I was quite disappointed that we couldn't ride the circuit again. I'm not so impressed with the track, there are some points where it's very, very bumpy and also the circuit in some places is unbelievably slippery in the wet, it's similar to Donington and worse at some corners. It's not so easy to get a good feeling in the wet here but hopefully it will be dry tomorrow and then we should be able to understand it a little bit better. Loris Capirossi - 4th Today felt like Malaysia last year. This torrential rain has ruined everyone's plans. When we woke up this morning it was already raining but we were able, more or less, to complete the morning practice session. The surface doesn't feel too bad in the wet, there was just one section, the "Quercia" turn, which was very slippery and I think that almost all this morning's crashes happened there. The real problem is that our braking points and lines are very particular in the rain so I really hope that tomorrow is dry because the forecast for Sunday is sunny. At the moment we have no data for Misano, so we have to start from scratch with gearbox set-up, suspension settings, engine mapping, tyre choice and so on. That's why we will get two hours of practice tomorrow morning, from 9 to 11am. I also hope they will be able to clean the track because the rain has put a lot of mud on the asphalt. The surface probably won't be perfect anyway, but it will get better once the bikes put down some rubber. Colin Edwards - 5th What time we had this morning was really good! Once I'd got the hang of going the opposite way around the track to what I was used to from my Superbike days, I felt pretty comfortable out there and my bike felt good in the wet. We went out initially and just did a few laps to get a bit of a feeling, before coming back in and changing the setting accordingly. We did almost the whole session on one set of tyres and they felt really good, much better than they have previously in the wet this season. We had a lot of grip which was very encouraging. Obviously we could have done with the extra time this afternoon and the weather has been unbelievable but everyone's in the same boat so we're going to have to make the most of it! Nicky Hayden – 6th Well that’s going to make things interesting now. It’s a new track and today we got a little bit of a feel for it, learned which way it goes and the track seems ok. It’s a little bit tight in a few places but the grip in the rain is not as bad as I’d heard it might be. It was quite bumpy, even in the wet, and with some of the corners you can tell that you’re going backwards – they’re pretty open on the entry and tight on the exit. It’s going to be tight and a little bit hard to pass here but the layout isn’t exactly too tricky – for instance there’s no blind corners. It looks like the fast corners at the end of the back straight are going to be the most technical, tricky section and it’s the fast corners where you can make up the most time. We’ll come back tomorrow ready to put in a hard day’s work. Randy de Puniet - 7th I was second fastest in that session, which is quite a good start. Initially, I wasn’t doing so well as I had a technical problem and lost 20 minutes; then I restarted, just as the really heavy rain came down and only managed two laps. Later on I got up to first place but then ended up seventh. The bike had a good feeling in the wet and I felt the Bridgestones had pretty good grip on the track, considering how wet it was, but I'm looking forward to riding in the dry because I think I can go even faster then. By the time the really bad weather began, I was in my motorhome. When I arrived back at the pits I saw what was going on in the box and pit lane. There was no way we could carry on today. It was quite an impressive sight, though! John Hopkins - 8th Well, you could say that everything went swimmingly today! In these conditions the only one that got any significant practice was the Team’s rubber duck! We weren’t able to test much this morning as it was so wet, so all we really learnt was which direction the track went. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow and we can get some dry time, because if not and it is fine for the race it will be a complete lottery as to what could happen. I wonder if Bridgestone has rubber rings that we could fit to the bike, so we could have some extra buoyancy to float around! Anthony West - 9th Well, that was interesting. It was good to get out there and be at the front for a while, and things were going well, but then I came off. But the other two Aussies, Chris Vermeulen and Casey Stoner, went down too and I didn't want them to feel embarrassed so I thought I'd join in. Seriously though, it was just a stupid thing as it was slippery out there. I went in to turn one, touched the brakes and lost the front. Still, I came back in, went straight out again and my fastest lap of the session was my last, which is a good sign. I've never seen anything like this rain and flooding though. I was looking for the Kawasaki jet ski. Alex Barros - 10th Due to the rain we were not able to obtain a lot of information about the reverse circuit, or which way to go in order to get the bike set-up for Sunday’s race, which should be dry.  Because I had ridden the track last year, I was able to check and verify that the asphalt condition is much better and with less potholes.  With the times people were doing in the wet today, if it doesn’t rain tomorrow I think the track is going to be very fast.  I’m confident that the two hour session tomorrow will give me all the data we need to establish a good race set-up for the bike and also to qualify with a good position on the grid. Chris Vermeulen - 11th I was looking forward to coming back here, but if I’d have known this weather was going to be here I’m sure I would rather have stayed on the beach in Australia. I thought at one point we were going to need a submarine to get out of the circuit this evening! We’ll have to see what happens tomorrow and pray that we get some dry sessions. Dani Pedrosa – 12th I’ve never seen anything like the conditions today. Even Malaysia last year wasn’t like this and I haven’t seen the garage getting flooded before – it’s amazing. This morning we could learn a little about the track and it seems quite bumpy, and a little slippery in the wet. It’s narrow too so it could be pretty difficult to overtake but we’ll see. Tomorrow morning we will have a lot to do in the two-hour session. Also, because we’ve lost the time this afternoon, it will be tricky to choose race tyres and set-up because the temperature and conditions in the afternoon are different to the morning. Effectively we’ll have just half an hour of afternoon time to do this before we use the qualifying tyres towards the end of the session. So, it’s going to be a busy day! Alex Hofmann - 14th We weren’t able to get a lot done today, because of the morning’s rain.  I’m just happy that I’m able to ride my Ducati again!  My hand is working alright, and despite the effort of riding the powerful Desmosedici, I’m not experiencing any more discomfort than when I’m training on my bicycle or super-moto.  I see that the weather forecast for tomorrow is good, so we can find out more about the circuit and get our bike as well sorted as we can. Toni Elias - DNS It was a strange day because of the rain. This morning I decided not to risk it in the wet because it was too dangerous to crash. I’ve never seen anything like the weather this afternoon – hopefully it will be dry tomorrow so we can get out on track.

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Casey Stoner 2010 Ducati

Diecast model of the 2010 Ducati Desmosedici GP10 of Casey Stoner. This 1:10 model is a valuable piece of MotoGP history, being the bike Stoner last ridden before his switch to Honda.
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