What makes Valentino Rossi the legend he is

9 times MotoGP World Champion, most number of GP wins on this side of Giacomo Agostini, most number of podium finishes, most number of GP appearances, the highest paid motorcycle racer in the world and the list goes on and oh did I forget to mention he is 39 years old.

People call him by many nicknames the Doctor, the Master, the greatest of all time, Peoples’ Champion. No prizes for guessing, his name is Valentino Rossi. 'The Doctor' is a global phenomenon who can ignite a sea of yellow fans in the grandstands by just his smile. He came, he saw, he conquered and went on to become a living legend in the world of Motorcycles. But more than the legendary racer I respect him for the person he is and the way he keeps reinventing himself.

The person who always chose to go against the tides time and again, while some went in favour of him like choosing the lacklustre Yamaha M1 in 2004 and turning it into a title-winning machine with which he went on to win 4 MotoGP titles(2004,2005,2008, 2009). But he also made blunders with the likes of joining Ducati and suffering a career setback of two years both professionally and personally when he witnessed the death of his friend and fellow rider Marco Simoncelli in front of his own eyes on the race track.

But it takes a monster of a man to hold himself up back from all such odds and continue the thing he loves doing the most -- riding motorcycles.

Rossi left Ducati to join Yamaha again in 2013 and many of critics banned him by saying that he was not fast enough to race at 34 years of age and with the two awful years spent at Ducati without a race win. But Rossi being Rossi made the bike do the talking, this time again with his old companion the Yamaha M1 and silenced all those who were apprehensive about him performing again at the top, he finished the 2013 Championship in 4th place, the 2014 Championship in 2nd place and 2015 Championship again in 2nd place where he lost the penultimate race in Valencia to Jorge Lorenzo by 5 points.

So, you all may be wondering from where this guy at the wrong side of his age gets so much motivation to race and give riders almost half his age a run for their money, with most his counterparts from the 2000s era having left the race track years ago after winning one or two world championships and going back to their backyard gardens.

Is it his love for Motorcycles that keep him going or the way he keeps himself away from the public radar once he is off the track that makes of it or the way he trains with his Academy rider in his private Ranch makes him go faster with every passing lap. What is it, there may be many answers to the question, but the most important thing we can learn from The ‘Force Valentino Rossi’ is to dedicate to our passions so much that even when all the odds are stacked up against us it is only our passion which motivates us to give it one more try again and again.

As rightly put together by the Yamaha Boss Lin Jarvis ‘Well you take Roger Federer, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods and put that combination in Motorcycles that’s Valentino Rossi for you’. I can only sum it up by saying that this man knows only one thing in life: to ‘GO FLAT OUT’ in motorcycles as the lights go green on the race track. Forza Vale!!!!