Watching the weekends MotoGP got me thinking, obviously Rossi was notable for retaining his 46 throughout his career in favour of the one time coveted No.1 but was he the first to start this trend? Looked though a few GP and F1 champs and seems most took the No.1, Hamilton had it after his first title but seemed to drop it for successive ones, so is it still an option that riders/drivers are just choosing not to take up anymore? Answers on a postcard (p.s. hang em up Rossi, it’s getting embarrassing now?)
I think a lot of riders and drivers are superstition so have success with a number and don't run the number 1
I guess its also a Marketing thing, shirt sales etc. The likes of Doohan etc carried the No1, as did Schumacher but maybe merchandise wasn't such a thing back then?
If he was a professional cyclist on a live circuit he would be swept up in the broom cupboard by now.
Long before now, as you know cycling is very cutthroat. However other than Lance there aren’t many that have popularised cycling however fleeting those years were. For all his wrongs on the Pro circus he made cycling an interesting subject as a back drop to his recovery from a very serious illness. No not the sociopath illness for him that incurable.... IMO it would be a difficult task to axe VR as a team due to the backlash from his die hard fans. It isn’t pretty to see him where he is now from he came from but we must be resigned to the fact it’ll be his decision to quit or at the very least be seen to be his decision.
He's paid millions to race motorcycles most weekends with all that public attention thrown upon him, but once he leaves or hangs up the leathers for ever that's all gone out of the window and that means just another normal human being walking the planet.
This is the same for all sportsmen though all at differing pay grades admittedly doesn’t prevent them from retiring. There aren’t many sports where you could have a career as long as his has been (sic) and still finish. I would have hoped that he’d take his energy to running a team full time now instead of hanging on to ever diminishing returns. As with most top sportsmen he’ll never be just a normal person walking the streets?
VR has been brilliant and a huge plus (mostly) to his sport. Whatever he decides to do at the end of the season, I doubt he will ever be ordinary. So long as he never becomes like Gazza, its all good.
‘Twas a rhetorical question. Gaza has/had lived with those demons even when he was playing. Plus VR doesn’t have the British public and the ‘Red Tops’ knocking him down at every opportunity. Gaza is a flawed genius, VR is genius.
VR might have had a beating from the Italian red top equivalent had he behaved like Gazza. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/nov/23/jamiewilson
I’m not sure why you introduced Gaza as an example of retired sportsmen there are plenty who go on to do good things for their sport long after retirement. No matter his supposed or actual crimes were IMO he didn’t deserve all the vitriol the press and public hammered him with. Two wrongs don’t make a right, not sure if he was ever prosecuted for these crimes, it will have been reported at the time though if he had.
I think you may have misunderstood? I wrote: Wife beating drunks? We are all able to draw our own conclusions.
As I stated he’s flawed, he was during his career not just on retirement. Not exactly a great comparison, not sure I’ve read anything VR having negative traits on the scale of Gaza. I don’t see a reason as to why Rossi would do ‘Gaza’ upon his retirement.
My point was that Gaza is a bum. And anything VR does is certain to be better than that. I think you entirely missed my point; I've certainly not suggested VR has ever done anything remotely like Gaza or is likely to.
