Rarely discussed but intriguing topic...

Because he is an alien from planet Rubber.

Because the man is slick.

Because He can ride, simple

Skill ..
(say no more)

touch feel ..
(Throttle to tyre on track)

him knowing his own Abilitys..
(the Goat)

consistency ..
(we see it every race weekend does the best of a good or bad job)

ones natural sense of danger
(he dont crash much)

Luck
(see dutch 06 crash - valencia crash - indy 09 - donnington 01 - max's elbow japan)etc

fook T-1000

tough in general and also physically robust particularly by the standards of the current formula.

I think its interesting. I'd love to see stats for how often he actually falls off his bike, because that has to have something to do with it. We have seen when he has hurt himself that he isn't particularly hard, he milks it/lets it affect his performance more than a lot of the riders around him. He seems to have a very good sense of where he can push that little extra and where its best to ride within his comfort zone. Call it risk management, thats basically why he is the best rider in the world. Look back to Laguna this year, at that point in the seaosn 3 of the top 4 riders in the world were either recovering from injury or injuring themselefes just as a result of the risks they were taking to get onto Rossi's level.

Well, in total honesty I woudl love to say that it is sheer luck that VR hasn't injured himself with the crashes he has had and what not - as the only injury I can recall is the broken wrist of years ago.

But I simply cannot believe that one person can have that much luck in that type of regard, so what is it?

Truth be known I have no farken idea but put it down to a number of things really.

- a bit of luck
- frequency of accidents - rare
- type of incident - generally lowside or at lower speed
- doesn't impact walls or obstructions
- safety improvements at circuits (air fence, sand trap improvements, run-off area increase etc)
- also, general single rider incidents
- generally he is not fighting when incident occrs, so risk lessened of subsequent bike/rider impacts

Have probably missed heaps but the above come to mind at the moment.

Yes the above is general but you put them together and really, he along with a lot of riders today do appear to avoid injuries that would have occurred in yesteryear under similar circumstance, but ultimately whether a rider is hurt or not is luck (IMO)


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tom @ Oct 26 2009, 08:58 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>I think its interesting. I'd love to see stats for how often he actually falls off his bike, because that has to have something to do with it. We have seen when he has hurt himself that he isn't particularly hard, he milks it/lets it affect his performance more than a lot of the riders around him.

Do I read this right?

Are you saying that he 'milks' the injuries he gets?

By 'milks' do you mean that he over-exagerates the effect in order to gain public sympathy and therefore 'set up' a ready made excuse?

If not, it reads that way thus I am happy for you to correct before I (of all people) come back to seemingly defend Rossi.







Gaz

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Gaz @ Oct 26 2009, 09:32 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>By 'milks' do you mean that he over-exagerates the effect in order to gain public sympathy and therefore 'set up' a ready made excuse?

No i don't think he does that, but he doesn't seem to be one of the grit your teeth and go flat out anyway type of riders. Milks is not the right word, its more that he isn't one of the guys who hides their injuries and tells the world they are fitter than they are.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Gaz @ Oct 26 2009, 10:32 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>- generally he is not fighting when incident occrs, so risk lessened of subsequent bike/rider impacts
I think this is a large part of it, I don't remember him putting the bike down too many times at high-speed in races anyway, with most errors due to inattention rather than in the heat of combat, and of late pushing too hard on cold tyres early against his career-long practice.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Mick D @ Oct 26 2009, 01:11 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Rossi has never missed a GP since his 125cc debut in 1996. He has started 226 successive races in all classes, 166 of which have been in the premier class. Both of these are records.

Wow! I say mainly luck is on the Champ's side!

he'a a lucky fellow!

It's a number of things. My opinion is that it's a combination of being very calm, never panicking and making a stupid mistake and a very, very controlled throttle hand. His crashes are usually mental lapses or relatively harmless lowsides. You rarely see Rossi highsiding and I think it comes back to his throttle hand and calm nature. Just my opinion.

Luck…… Hmmm.

Garry Player the golfer was once asked about his shots from the bunker and he replied “The more I practice the luckier I get”. Says something about making your own luck.

Then again I have seen him do some wild things now and again which could have ended up in quite a mess, so there has to be a degree of pure luck involved as well.

Someone will tell you bridgestone give him a custom set of bones just before every race, that's not fair! Just kidding... Once a big motogp personality (can't remember who) was asked about Rossi being the best rider... that man simply said 'he's got the biggest brain among all the other riders and adversaries he had to battle against'. Personally I think he's been a bit lucky but he definitely knows how to stay on the bike more than anyone else, and he is able to stay calm even in the most complicated situations... anyone remember his bad starts with 990s? that's not a coincidence to me

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Mick D @ Oct 26 2009, 07:11 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>I wanna know what you guys and gals think are the reasons for Rossi's unique ability amongst racers (of any level of ability) to race, and occasionally fall, for 13 years without an injury serious enough to keep him out of his next start.
I'll never forget his amazing ride in Assen in 2006, his bad luck season, where he came from last on the grid to finish eighth after cracking bones in his right hand during a bad crash in free practice. He did just enough to qualify. Burgess looked upset when they interviewed him on the grid.

We are fortunate to be witnessing a living legend.

http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2009/rossi+statistics+2009

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Mick D @ Oct 26 2009, 06:08 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>I guess its part of the magic of the greatest... Wayne Gretzky comes to mind as having a long an unusually injury-free career. In Valentino's case how much of his "luck" in not suffering serious/lost-time injury is due to JB and well prepped and supremely competitive machinery for most of his career?

Rossi has skill and wasn't protected whereas Gretzky had skill but was protected from the highest level in the NHL. Thinking about it you could argue that protection or better equipment may be equally advantageous, but I digress. I cite Bobby Orr to prove my case and we all know that story. I admire Rossi more than Gretzky. Okay, I don't like Gretzky. Loved Orr. Rossi, I can stand. Can't someone just go ahead and beat the guy? He got a HUGE break with Stoners injury this year and I'm sure he knows it. The last few races show what he would have been up against mano-a-mano. He'd have been second.

Still when the dust settles he's got the cup...and that is all anyone will remember. The devil is in the details.

by the way, Rossi's able to fly like Lorenzo too