River

There’s some special experience with Gresini Racing Team that I didn’t post here.

Just to be clear, I’m definitely not encouraging everyone to go and randomly bother the team! If you can, please just book Gresini’s official Guided Tour.

So, right after surviving the absolute hell of finishing my thesis last year, I headed to Italy to visit my friend. She lives in Bologna, so I also checked out the Ducati Museum and Factory. On Monday, I booked a guided tour scheduled on Friday with Gresini Racing, but on Thursday, I got an email saying the tour was cancelled due to lack of tourists. But Faenza is just also a beautiful town to visit, so I was like, let’s go anyway and try my luck.

While in Milan, I bought the book Nadia wrote about Gresini. So, book in hand, I took a taxi straight to the Gresini team which located outside of the town. When we got there, the main gate was tightly shut. I was just about to tell the taxi driver, “Hey, can you wait a sec? I’ll just snap a quick photo and we can go.” But then the gate suddenly opened! The driver thought it meant “come on in,” but it turned out another car was trying to leave, so we had to back up. Just as the gate was slowly closing again, it opened again… And out walked this middle aged guy (pretty sure it was Carlo Merlini). He just stood there, locking eyes with me and the driver. So, I looked at Carlo, Carlo looked at the driver, the driver looked at me... the three of us just stood there in the most painfully awkward silence ever.

So I pulled out the book I bought a few days ago to show him why I was there. Carlo looked at me and went, “Do you want Nadia to sign it for you?” I was literally like ??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME IS THIS EVEN ALLOWED??? And just like that, Carlo had me follow him inside. Like, I literally just effortlessly walked right into the Gresini hq just like that??? Then Carlo went to find Nadia. It seemed like Nadia didn’t really speak english, so Carlo literally stood right next to us the whole time, translating everything so she could write the autograph for me.

Nadia is genuinely a literal angel, so sweet and down to earth! She asked how to spell my name and we took some photo together right in front of Fermin’s bike. Then Nadia asked if I wanted a tour. I thought I'd be touring with Carlo, but NOPE!! Nadia herself took me around the team facility!!! Seeing that I didn't really know Italian, Nadia went around the whole office asking, “Who speaks English here?” Ahhhhhh, there was seriously no need to treat me this well, I'm gonna cry! A mechanic introduced the workshop to me in english, and Nadia took me to the area dedicated to Fausto. After a quick little tour, the staff mentioned that next season’s bikes weren’t fully assembled yet so I couldn't see them, but honestly, I was already on cloud nine.

Then Carlo asked if I was heading to the train station. I said yeah, and he ACTUALLY DROVE ME THERE HIMSELF???? Before leaving, I wished Nadia and the team the absolute best for next season, and then I got into Carlo’s car... Like, what is this royal VIP treatment?! I will ride or die for Gresini Racing forever... In the car, I was fangirling like crazy, telling him “Nadia is my Queen!” and Carlo was just like, Yes, SHE IS. He also asked me random stuff like how much the book was and where I bought it, but my brain had completely short circuited by then. What a wild ride... It honestly feels like a dream. It's been hours since I woke up from it, but I’m still so incredibly moved...

[Link]

He [Vale] even dedicated celebrations to him, some of questionable taste, such as the one about "Cleaning company 'La Rápida' – we clean the trash from the championship" or when he won his seventh title, saying about the shirt he was wearing during the celebration: "This isn't a seven, it's a Sete."

which understandably made me go ‘???? what? that would be from sepang 2005 in a race that sete didn’t really figure out into, long past sete being any kind of title threat too’ …….

the article was from late 2010s, so ofc i needed to find sources actually from 2005, and after some searching i did find 2 articles in different spanish publications, one on as.com:

"This shirt thing isn't a seven, it's a Sete. I'm really happy because I gave more than 100% in this race and for the title. Finishing second here is a success considering all the tire problems we had, plus the pressure from the mistake at Motegi and having to win the championship. I never say that second place is like a victory, but finishing second like this is harder than winning when everything is going well. For me, it was an incredible race. When Loris overtook me again, after three laps I realized he was playing cat and mouse with me. Then I said to myself: OK, see you next time."

the other from el pais:

…Yesterday, during the celebrations, after the podium ceremony, Rossi remembered Sete Gibernau, the Spanish Honda rider, once his friend and party companion in Ibiza, and for the last three seasons his main rival: "Seven, not Sete," the Yamaha rider quipped, taking advantage of the similarity between the number seven in Italian and his rival's name.

and the second one, confusingly, had the quote in a different order! plus, I’ve watched many of his post race interviews with tve and I’ve never heard him say anything in spanish in those ever, he always replied in italian! so that left me in some doubt…..

but then i came across this message on a spanish forum:

[I was cracking up when the journalist asked Rossi how he felt about winning seven championships and Rossi corrected him, saying it wasn't seven, it was SETE championships ;D;D ;D That's Rossi for you, he remembers his friends even on the podium. ;D]

random user also recounting this solidified for me that it indeed happened and was a joke on purpose but still i just couldn’t find the actual clip anywhere………..

until yesterday:)

"Esto non è siete, è SETE"

“this is not seven, it’s *Sete’ [*pun on Sete and Sette which means seven in italian]

@https-shu thank youuu<333

upd: my favorite Italian expert @verdemint 😘 informed me that vale definitely says ‘sete’ and not ‘sette’ there:)

(full translation of the clip courtesy of shu under the cut)

//////

"[…] si seguís considerando a Valentino como tu ídolo, como tu referente, a pesar de que dijo en su momento que lo había traicionado?" [Marc, do you continue to consider Valentino as your idol, as your role model, even though he said at the time that you had betrayed him?]

"Se nota que no está en el mundo. El Valentino es un referente para cualquier piloto, […] pero pero bueno, ahora lo miro con ojos diferentes que antes." [It's obvious he's not in this world (aka he's delusional). Valentino is a role model for any rider, [...] but, well, now I look at him with different eyes.]

-Argentina 2016

So, I made a translation... Marc called the relationship with Valen a "couple breakup" and described them as dancing Salsa

Aragon 2013

[Do you think that Marc should be penalized for the touch?]