“Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) has broken his tibia and fibula in an enduro training accident in Italy, with the rider from Tavullia set to undergo surgery on Thursday to fix the injury.
“He will be forced to sit out at least his home round at Misano – next on the calendar – with the timescale for his recovery not yet known.”
Valentino Rossi suffered another setback Thursday evening. Italian reports such as Gazzetta dello Sport said that Rossi broke his leg during a training crash, but no injuries were confirmed by his team.The Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team did confirm that the 38-year-old Italian was involved in a enduro accident Thursday near his home.Rossi was “taken to the ‘Ospedale Civile di Urbino’ for a check-up.” Movistar Yamaha MotoGP says a “further medical bulletin will be issued in due course.”If the broken leg rumors are true, Rossi would be forced to miss his home race, the San Marino GP at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. This would also be a huge blow to his attempt at a 10th World Title.Valentino RossiThe news arrives after Rossi made history last week at Silverstone by becoming the only rider in GP history to achieve 300 premier-class starts. Rossi finished fourth at the British Grand Prix.So far this season Rossi achieved four podiums, including a win at Assen. With six rounds remaining, VR46 is fourth in points with 157, 26 behind points leader Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso.Rossi also suffered a motocross-training injury ahead of Mugello, and complained of pain in his stomach and chest. Regardless, Rossi raced and finished fourth.Rossi’s last fracture was during the 2010 Italian Grand Prix at Mugello; he missed six weeks of racing that year.Movistar Yamaha MotoGP should update us shortly!
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!