Valentino Rossi

Mat Oxley, author of the official biography Mick Doohan:Thunder from down under, knows Rossi well from ghosting his magazine columns, and has ridding the 2001 title-winning NSR500 bike. A former Isle of Man TT winner, Oxley writes for Performance Bikes and Bike. He lives in London.

Whey he grew up so fast and so funny, with input from his parents (father was a GP winner in the late 1970s). Year-by-year career history, from riding minibikes aged 10 through to the 2003 MotoGP season - the victories, the defeats, the rivals the crashes. The bikes, the riding techniques. How he adapted his spectacular riding style to maintain his dominance as the two-stroke 500 GP class gave way to four-stroke MotoGP for 2002. Rossi at play, post-race partying and the Valenteenieboppers who chase him around. Infamous Rossi hairstyles, happenings, phrases.