After 26-years, 432 grands prix, 115 wins, 235 podiums and nine world championships, Valentino Rossi rode his final MotoGP race at Valencia on Sunday. The result, "very important" to Rossi but largely academic for the 76,000 fans that travelled to the cramped stadium circuit or tuned in around the world to witness a moment in motorsport history, was tenth place. That's nothing compared to the height of Rossi's powers, when he won 11 races per year on four occasions between 1997 and 2005, including a stunning 16 out of 17 podiums during the 2005 campaign (and 15 as late as 2015). But by the tough standards of his final season - in which, for the first time, he failed to stand on...
Full Story »