Valentino Rossi and the post Valencia 2006: “More training to become champion”

From the preparations for the world championship party to the great disappointment. For Valentino Rossi, the Valencia GP in 2006 represented an important crossroads. The Italian champion found himself at the head of the World Championship in the penultimate race with eight points over Nicky Hayden, but he thwarted the good comeback in the second half of the season with a crash. Result: the American world champion and Valentino mocked. Yet the defeat allowed Rossi to improve, starting with the training method.

TRANSFORMATION

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MotoGP paid homage to the Italian champion after his retirement by producing a docu-series, “Tales of Valentino”. One of the episodes is dedicated to the 2006 defeat. Rossi explains what lessons he learned from the Valencia debacle: “I took a big step because I realized that if I wanted to win again, I would have to change my habits a lot. More workouts and more life as an athlete “. Preparation has undergone a drastic change, as confirmed by former crew chief Jeremy Burgess: “For the first time, Rossi started training in the gym. He had never done it before, nor in 125 and 250. In the first years with Honda he didn’t need something like this so much ”. In support of his words, in the documentary there are some images that portray the champion at work to strengthen arms and shoulders.

HELP

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Paradoxically, the defeat made the nine-time world champion grow even from a psychological point of view. Former Yamaha team manager Davide Brivio is sure of it: “Losing the title in Valencia helped Valentino improve in the following years. Maybe he needed to get back down to earth and say, ‘Okay, I might as well lose.’ It probably helped him to accept the ups and downs ”.