UPDATE from Friday afternoon: Yamaha reports that Valentino Rossi has returned home from the hospital, and will continue recovering at home.The 38-year-old Italian MotoGP veteran and multi-time World Champion was taken to the hospital following a MX accident, and diagnosed with mild chest and abdominal trauma. Yamaha reports that no fractures were detected in any part of Valentino Rossi’s body, and no serious traumatic pathologies were found.
Rossi underwent further examination Friday, and Yamaha reports VR46 is making positive progress. The Yamaha YZR-M1 pilot is experiencing less pain than on Thursday. Doctors say the pain is a result of slight liver and kidney lesions that have not evolved into further complications.Rossi will continue to receive pain relief over the next 12 hours and, over the course of the day, he will undergo routine diagnostic tests. If the results are positive, he may be discharged from the hospital within the day.For the opening three rounds of 2017 MotoGP, Valentino Rossi was in the game—big time.The nine-time World Champion finished on the podium in Qatar, Argentina and Texas, giving him the points lead into round four in Jerez. But things changed drastically for Rossi at Jerez. Following a few mistakes, Rossi had to settle for 10th in Spain. This was followed two weeks later by a last-lap crash while battling for the lead with Movistar Yamaha MotoGP teammate Maverick Vinales at Le Mans.Valentino RossiRossi’s string of sour circumstances continued Thursday when he was involved in a motocross training crash Thursday at Cross Club Cavallara in Mondavio (Pesaro Urbino, Italy).So far, Rossi’s is still set to race next Sunday, June 4, at his home round in Mugello. After five of 18 rounds, Rossi is third in points with 62, six behind Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and 23 behind leader Vinales.
Hello everyone and welcome once again to the Ultimate Motorcycling podcast—Motos and Friends. My name is Arthur Coldwells.
Motos and Friends is brought to you by the Yamaha YZF-R7—Yamaha’s awesome supersport machine that is as capable on the racetrack as it is on the street. …and it’s comfortable too! Check it out at at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com.
In this week’s first segment, Senior Editor Nic de Sena rides the BMW K 1600 GT. This is the sporty bagger version of BMW’s K series of machines, those are the models with the awesome 6-cylinder engine. The GT has been given a little makeover for 2023, and Nic gives us his take.
In the second segment, I chat with one of my all time heroes—three-time World Champion racer ‘fast’ Freddie Spencer. I’ll do my best not to come off as too much of a fanboy here, but frankly it’ll be tough!
In my humble opinion, Spencer is a contender for the GOAT—greatest of all time. Sure, his career was a little shorter than some, and his number of championships falls behind the likes of Lawson, Doohan, Rossi, and of course Marquez. But at the time, Freddie literally changed the way motorcycles were ridden. 30 years before Marc Marquez, Freddie was able to push the front wheel into a slide, corner after corner, lap after lap in order to get the bike turned faster than anyone else. Freddie took completely different lines and was able to get on the throttle so early he could out accelerate anyone off a corner.
In the modern era, of course Freddie is the chairman of the FIM MotoGP Stewards panel. This is the panel of referees for all three classes of Grand prix racing. I talked to Freddie about his task there, and although for contractual reasons with Dorna and the FIM he cannot talk about specific riders, teams, or events, nevertheless his explanation of the job makes for interesting listening. It’s a tough job, and frankly I wouldn’t want to do it!
At any rate, Freddie’s new book ‘Feel’ is available on Amazon—I’d highly recommend you reading it whether you’re a fan of Freddie or not, even whether you’re into racing or not; every rider has something to learn from his mental approach.
Actually—Ultimate Motorcycling is giving away five copies of the book—signed by Freddie himself—to the first five listeners who contact us with the correct answer to the question: How many national AMA championships did Freddie win, and which years were they?
Please email your answers to producer@ultimatemotorcycling.com and we will contact the winners and send you a signed copy of Feel. Those five winners will be announced on a future episode. Unfortunately for legal reasons this offer is ONLY open to US residents.
So, from all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!
