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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2007-11-04  Rider claims after season finale in Valencia
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Season 2007 has reached it's end today, and many of riders were probably relieved hoping to have more luck in next season. Dani Pedrosa celebrated victory on home soil, also demonstrating progress made by Honda after tough start of the season, so for sure he is one of those riders looking forward for winter testing. Read impressions of riders after the race. Dani Pedrosa - 1st: I'm very happy with this result. I really wanted to win this race very much and so actually achieving it feels fantastic. The race was very tough and I had to push at the maximum from start to finish. In the early laps I was struggling a little with grip from the front tyre but then in the second half of the race is was very good. The pace today was really fast and Casey was chasing hard so there was no moment to relax or back off. Towards the end of the race I was sliding in some of the left-handers but I was still able to push hard. I must say thanks to the team because they have worked very hard for me this weekend and all year and the bike was perfect today. Also I must thank Michelin too because the tyres were very good today. I didn't know until I arrived in the parc ferme that I had second in the world championship and this was nice surprise. I didn’t expect this because there was only a very, very slim chance of doing this coming into this weekend. After quite a difficult season second place is better than third and gives the Repsol Honda Team some reward for sticking with it and never giving up this year. It will give us even more motivation for winter testing because we must now take another step forward so that we can arrive at the first race of 2008 with the best possible package. I think the crowd has enjoyed this weekend and I'm very proud to have given my fans a great result at my home circuit – it’s a great feeling! Casey Stoner - 2nd: I expected the pace to be low 33s, but I didn't expect it to be so fast for so long. Everything seemed good, then Dani came past and pulled a bit of an advantage straight away and I wasn't able to claw it back. I could pretty much hold it, then he'd eke out a tenth or two, then I'd get some of it back, then he'd take out a little more. He rode a faultless race, so he deserved the win. I'm happy for him because I now know what it's like to win your home GP - it's a very good feeling, especially in this class. We were pushing hard and I had a couple of front-end slides but the bike was feeling good. Then with five laps to go I lost some grip, so I eased off a bit because we were quite a distance in front of the rest. I'm happy with the way I rode, I got the best out of the bike, so I'm reasonably happy. It's been a fantastic year, we can't say anything bad about it, my worst result was the race where we won the championship so the title made up for that! I think next year everyone will come out a little tougher, a little stronger, so I'm going to make sure I do everything I can to come out on top again. John Hopkins - 3rd: I have just got to thank everyone at Suzuki - that is my first and foremost task. To every member at Suzuki I want to pass on my ultimate thanks to them, Suzuki has given me my life in MotoGP and established my career and I just cannot show enough gratitude to them. Today the tyres and the bike worked awesome and I just went for it from the beginning! I got a good start and then got around Nicky Hayden, but from there it was a pretty lonely race. I just had to push myself against the clock and make sure I pulled away from the riders behind me. I succeeded in that but it was very emotional on the last few laps with that comfort and I had to concentrate real hard to keep focused! It’s a great result because my Mum, sister, fiancée and her family are all here today so it was an unbelievable feeling when I crossed the line – it was a great way to end the year. I would have liked to have put the bike on the top step for Rizla Suzuki and especially all my crew, but that’s for Dani and the home fans today! I just want to say thanks once again, it’s been a fantastic five years and I’ve had a top time, now I just want to take it all in tonight and have a good time with the boys! Marco Melandri - 4th: I knew that it a would be a tough race, but today was much harder than in practice. I made a good start to gain five places but I lacked feeling in the front end and the bike was moving around a lot. I fought with Hayden for fourth and was looking for Hopkins, but it wasn't possible on this occasion. It’s disappointing because I wanted a podium and I've missed out on fourth place in championship by two points to John. I wanted a better result but thanks to Fausto and the team for all their hard work. Loris Capirossi - 5th: I felt emotional when I came into the pits after my last race for Ducati. Saying goodbye is always very difficult. We've had a lot of good times together and although this year has been difficult, I've won a race and scored three more podiums. I wish to thank all my team, all the Ducati people and all the Ducati fans who have supported me. I think we worked very well this weekend and today the bike was working not so bad. I had some difficulties with the tyres because my style, which uses a lot of lean angle, works the tyres very hard. I made a decent race, not bad and not good. I had a good duel with Nicky [Hayden] but that lost me contact with Marco [Melandri]. Anyway, this season is over and now it's time to think of the future. Chris Vermeulen - 6th: It was a tough race today with having to start from the fourth row. I got a bit boxed in on the first corner and it was hard to pass some of the guys as they were running quite wide on some parts of the track. Once it settled down I got into a rhythm and was able to pass them. The pace at the front was very hot and I felt like I had the speed to run with John, but he had a much better advantage after the first few laps. We finished sixth in the end and sixth in the championship, it’s been a good season and we have improved a lot this year. We have a number of new things coming so it looks like being a very exciting future. I’d like to thank everybody for their help this year especially my crew and Chief Technician Tom O’Kane, and congratulations to John on his third place today. It’s been a great two years working with him and it will be sad to see him go. I wish him good luck next year and hope he does well – as long as we beat him! Alex Barros - 7th: Today was a shame because I had a great start, was seventh at the end of the first lap, and catching up to those ahead. The problem that slowed me down came during the sixth lap, when I noticed the front tire had a problem with the carcass, so I slowed my rhythm so that I could finish the race. I believe that if the front tire didn't have any problems, I would have fought for the fourth position. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to the whole team, our sponsors, and the whole motocycling world in general for supporting me and staying with me all these years. I am very happy to have done what I love to do, gotten the results that I have, and for these reasons I won't be leaving with sadness. Nicky Hayden - 8th: Well, we knew all weekend that we were on the back foot and the race proved it. We made a lot of changes for warm-up this morning and the package felt a bit better, but still we didn't have the pace we needed for the race. I got a pretty good start but there were a few places on the lap where I was too weak and this made it quite a difficult race for me. I got past Melandri and held on to fourth for as long as I could but then to lose four places in the last five or six laps was tough to take. Still, the season's in the books and we'll start all over with testing on Tuesday. It's been a tough year so now we'll go back to work. Thanks to the team for all their hard work this year - everybody at Honda, Michelin, my mechanics and everyone who's been behind me this year. We're going to keep working hard so we can do a lot better next year. Randy de Puniet - 9th: I'm disappointed because I used a harder rear tyre, thinking that after ten or 15 laps it would prove a good choice, but I got the opposite performance. It dropped down a lot on the left hand side and the rear was locking at every corner. When I opened the throttle, I didn't find enough grip. It's a big shame because I never felt any of that during the practice sessions. It was a tough race and hard work but I rode as hard as I could to finish with as good a result as possible. Toni Elias - 10th: I made a good start, but I struggled a lot in the first ten laps with a full tank, and was not getting enough grip. Once my pace improved I went after Vermeulen, De Puniet and Capirossi but couldn't catch them. It’s a shame because I wanted to end the season with a better result. I want to thank the team and Fausto for the two last years. They have been like a family to me and they helped me get my first MotoGP win. Carlos Checa - 12th: I’m a little emotional because I still have a great feeling for this fantastic sport, although I have been very sick this weekend. My aim was just to finish the race as a way of saying good-bye to my fans and friends and seven laps from the finish I started to have a lot pain in my stomach. But I enjoyed the battle with group of Tamada, Edwards and briefly Rossi. In the end I was ahead of them but unable to catch Guintoli. I was not aggressive from ninth position at the start, but as the feeling came to me I started to push hard to the finish. Grand prix racing has been a great part of my life but now I start a new adventure in Superbikes. Colin Edwards - 13th: There’s really nothing to say about today so I’ll just leave that be! It was my last race with the Factory Team and everyone knows I wanted a better goodbye than this, but there was little I could do today. I’m very thankful to everyone in this team for the last three years, which have without doubt been some of the most memorable of my racing career. A huge thanks to Yamaha, to Michelin and to everyone in the team; it’s been great fun. I’m very glad I’m staying with Yamaha and now I’m just looking forward to getting started with the new bike! Shinya Nakano - 14th: Another very difficult race and one which has basically summed up the whole season. My start was so-so, but I found that I could overtake some riders going into turn two. At the beginning my pace wasn’t so bad, but from the middle of the race I found that I couldn’t improve my lap times. It was another big battle from 16th to 12th with riders like Carlos Checa, Colin Edwards and myself. Eventually I finished in 14th place. This year we’ve struggled with front-end feeling from the RC212V, which has been a big problem, as my style needs this. I’ve crashed a few times this season because of this, but I’m pleased to be ending the year without any injuries. I would like to thank Luca and Giulio for always supporting me and keeping me motivated during this difficult year and also the rest of the team. This is an excellent team but unfortunately the results haven’t been there for us this year. Anthony West - 16th: The race, for me, was terrible and very long. But the good thing is I realised what my problem's been all weekend and I've been chasing the wrong issues. I thought it was all about the rear grip but actually I've just been lacking confidence in pushing the front. Now I realise that's what I should have been working on all weekend. Thirty laps around here taught me that! I'm glad winter testing's coming up and this result is going to make me more determined to do everything I can for next season. I'm going to spend the next few months training and trying to get this bike working for me so I can get faster and more consistent at every track. Valentino Rossi - DNF: I have no words. For sure, after today, I can say that it’s not just a matter of misfortune. I did everything I could in order to be on the grid today, because I wanted to try and confirm my second place in the championship, which I think I deserved. I was riding very fast, even though my bike was not perfect. When I got into 14th place, I told myself that my task was done, but I was feeling quite good and I wanted to try to pass some more riders. Unfortunately however I felt that I had a problem with my bike and I was forced to come in. Now we are checking the data to understand what happened, because at the moment it’s not so clear. I will need 20 days to fix my hand and then I will be back in Jerez to start my winter testing programme. I’d like to thank Claudio Costa and Marco Montanari, as well as everyone at the Clinica Mobile, because they made a great effort with my hand to enable me to race today. Kurtis Roberts - DNF: The thing just never worked right. We did 1'34 lap times pretty easily in practice, and a 1'33 to qualify. I was riding just the same in the race and we couldn't even see 1'34. My last lap was a 1'36. The engine started missing really bad off the bottom, and got progressively worse from the first lap on. I couldn't do anything to keep up with them. It got slower and slower, which is pretty bad for the slowest thing out there. Honda did a good job on their bikes obviously, but not ours. Chaz Davies - DNS: I'm very sorry to have been unable to participate in the race, but my right wrist was very swollen and hurt a lot, not to mention the fractured fifth metacarpal in my right hand. I want to say thank you to the entire team for all their hard work these last races, and as for me, it has been an unforgettable experience.

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Valentino Rossi t-shirt

Yellow Valentino Rossi t-shirt, featuring sun and moon symbols on sleeves. Made of 100% cotton, VR-46 logo on the chest.
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