Heroes
I took my foot off the ground and started pedalling, but not for long as gravity took over and I slammed to the ground. Not to be disheartened by the failure, I hopped back onto my bicycle in an attempt to achieve any boy my age would do - maintain cycle balance. I have been trying to get this done for weeks but to no avail. My grandfather even hired someone to train me for the task and he came for a day and disappeared. Maybe he understood that this wasn’t such an easy task lol. But there was something different about this Sunday evening. Unlike my previous attempts, there was something that drove me on today. Just an hour earlier I was watching a motorcycle race on TV and I witnessed one of the most fiercesome battles ever! One of the riders was a bloke named Gibernau and he was trying his best to fend off the other guy, an Italian. They took their machines to the very limit and flicked them left and right in the blink of an eye. Well, I couldn’t blink and I was sure those guys didn’t do it either. In the end though, the Italian muscled past the Spaniard and took the win. That Italian was none other than Rossi...Valentino Rossi.
TV was something that carried the tag of being an “idiot box” in the 90s and if you grew up in that decade, you would know that we didn’t have a lot of channels to surf through. I often wondered why TV sets back then came with a remote as the best “packages” in that era had a max of 15 channels for us to surf. Sunday evenings though was a different story. You have to fight with your family members to get control of the TV as the races would often clash with the evening cinema. At this point, I should also remind you that 24hr channels were not there yet. So race weekends often had a special spot in my heart. So as a race fan, this era brought a lot of fans to the sport and two names played a pivotal role in this. One of course Rossi while the other was F1 ace Michael Schumacher. People often think Michael became the Michael because of his Ferrari but I disagree. Having had the privilege to see him race throughout the 90s, I have seen him taken victories out of the impossible. Actually, I feel very lucky to have grown up in the Rossi-Schumacher era. In my view, racing was at its peak and in its purest form in this era. It wasn’t exactly genius stuff to make a powerful machine but it takes special skill and finesse to squeeze out all that power and lay it out on the track. This I feel was something these two do weekend in-weekend out time after time for a long time.
By the turn of the century, these guys found even more success breaking records after records, dominating the sport like never before, and cementing their names in the history books. I adored them, I dreamt of being like them...I wanted to ride a bike like they did. I eventually learned how to ride a bike and my first vehicle was in fact a Honda. I still remember that day when the dealer handed over the keys to me. Inside my mind, I was telling myself that I will ride my bike like Rossi lol. It is like a cricket fan where whenever a boy swings his bat for the first time, inside his mind, there is a Sachin smashing the ball away.
Like all things, the good stuff should come to an end. This year Rossi announced his retirement from the sport, bringing the curtains down on an illustrious career spanning over two decades. How would I remember this man? Well most fans would say that he is the only rider who has won championships in all classes. They will probably give you stats in a way that would put most investment bankers to shame! Me? I would remember him as the man who brought me into the world of motorcycles and riding. I don’t think I would have become a fan of racing if it weren’t for this guy and his dance with his Honda. Above all I think deep inside my heart knows, Rossi is the reason how I learned to maintain cycle balance! I have never seen or spoken to him for real but his racecraft often spoke for him on a the global stage. And that is the only thing that matters!!
Thank you Rossi for the wonderful races! We will miss you but you deserve a good life outside racing. So enjoy your new chapter. Always a fan...always in my heart. Go vale!