Hitting the Apex Page #9

The good thing

is that I didn't get hurt.

We'll try again in Barcelona

in two weeks.

I could have had a good race,

I could have been on the podium.

Thank you, everybody.

Nine-times world champion.

Valentino Rossi!

Jorge Lorenzo won again

in Catalunya.

Pedrosa was second ahead of Marquez.

Rossi was fourth.

He hadn't been on the podium

since the first race.

Dani Pedrosa

was leading the championship.

He'd finished first or second

at the last five races.

If you check the riding style

of the guys that are in front,

it's a little different

from what it used to be before.

The rider is much,

much, much, much lower.

And the bike stays much more up

in the corner.

If you come from another era,

where the bikes were different

the riding was different

and the tires were different,

you have to change your riding style

and that's not so easy.

Marquez has it down to a tee.

He hangs off the bike so far.

Lorenzo as well.

And I don't know if it be the way...

tire development or chassis

or how things have gone,

but the only way to get it to turn

is basically to drag your elbow

on the ground.

I have also a lot of bad memories

from the two years before.

And I need the time for recreate

the same feeling with the M1.

In a sport career,

there is a moment which is magic.

Everything goes well around you.

When it goes by, it's very hard

to get back the same thing,

because you are not the same guy.

These new guys are coming and pushing.

I've analyzed Rossi

and he's trying harder than ever.

He's changed

his riding style completely.

This is Rossi when he started in MotoGP.

This riding style

dates from the Eighties.

He's moved his butt,

but he's holding his head up.

This is Valentino Rossi now.

His head is a long way off the bike.

His spinal column makes a V

with the bike.

He's adapted to the new riding style,

which the young riders are using,

but maybe he hasn't

yet understood this style.

Rossi crashed in testing

the day after the Catalan race.

Storms hit the next tests

in Aragon later that week.

Then the sun came out

and things got better.

I'm happy. It's a good test.

I feel good on the bike. The first

feeling is that we make a step.

Next stop, Holland.

It's round seven!

It's the last Saturday in June.

I've always had faith.

I always expected to see him win again.

I knew he liked that circuit.

Lap one about to be completed.

Here comes Rossi inside Stefan Bradl.

And Rossi moves into third place.

Very aggressively.

Once again he's making

the kind of passes that he used to make.

Marc Marquez in front of him.

Both of them know

about winning in Assen.

Marquez has won three times here.

Rossi seven.

He's gone through!

He made two or three beautiful passes.

It was so exciting to see

how the crowd responded.

I fight with everybody.

I fight with Marc. I fight with Pedrosa.

He was beautiful to watch,

elegant like before.

I'm always a little bit faster

in some places. I feel good.

They cross the line.

There'll be three laps to go.

I waited until the last three laps,

then I went and opened the door

to the bell tower

and turned on the lights.

Then I hurried back to see the end.

He is chasing

his 106th Grand Prix victory.

He hasn't won a Grand Prix

for over two and a half years.

He's half a lap away.

They cannot believe it.

They cannot watch

back at Valentino Rossi's garage.

Valentino Rossi wins here in Assen!

We did wonder if we would ever see him

win a grand prix again.

When he won the last race in Malaysia,

it was his 46th win with Yamaha.

And now, after not winning for 46 races,

he has won again.

So 46 follows us

through good times and bad.

I cannot believe. It was a long,

long time from Sepang in 2010.

In these years,

I make to me also this question.

I can come back

on the first position or not?

It was a tough period.

The bells are automatic.

I went out and forgot about them.

I left them ringing and went to the bar.

We had a bit of a party.

For a long time, a very long time,

he left them ringing and ringing

and ringing.

And Jorge Lorenzo,

he had an incredible weekend.

In Assen from the beginning

I felt even better

than in Mugello and Montmelo.

These two victories

give me too much confidence.

I was overconfident.

That was my mistake.

The corner I crashed, I entered like

I was on the dry. 250km/h.

Jorge's accident in Assen

was about four seconds.

One of the longest accidents we've seen.

The first impact was with the elbow.

That transferred energy

into the shoulder.

That caused the crack in the collarbone.

I was thinking

that I would lose the championship,

I lose two or three races.

Every time I move just one centimeter,

I felt so much pain.

I wanted to get operated

as soon as possible.

I couldn't wait for even one night

because the pain was so high.

So we went to the hospital

close to Assen.

I informed Jorge

that if you operate tonight,

you can do push-ups tomorrow

and we can try to ride on the warm-up.

And to see how it feels, step by step.

He was, "It's impossible, Wilco."

I said, "I've had my collarbone broken

with a plate on it."

You know, it's not a joint.

A collarbone is something fixed.

And as soon

as you have the plate on it,

if you have the support

from the collarbone you can ride a bike.

Finally, after four or five hours,

we decided to rent a private plane

and go to Barcelona.

And in one hour and a half

I was getting operated.

When I wake up after the operation,

I was feeling much better.

Much less pain. And we started

to think about coming back.

Soon as we arrived

back in Assen, he said,

"If I get green light from the doctor

tomorrow morning, we try."

It's the medical director

at each circuit who decides.

I personally advised him not to race.

He said "If I lose ten points,

it could cost me the championship."

There was a kind of euphoria in him,

which he communicated

to everybody who saw him race.

We prepared him

from a medical point of view.

A few painkillers.

But making possible

this unimaginable thing,

that was all down to Lorenzo's heart.

They told me also if I crash again,

my career can be over.

So they scared me a little bit.

He felt quite OK,

because he was very fit before the crash

and I think that helped him a lot.

At a certain point in their lives,

they find the strength,

the will,

the strong desire within them

to achieve something impossible.

And so there is something mythological

about their lives.

He's now into fifth place.

Crutchlow runs a little bit wide.

Is Lorenzo gonna go through?

He doesn't need

any invitation whatsoever.

We ride with Jorge Lorenzo!

He's closing up now on Marc Marquez.

I was catching the front group,

Dani, Valentino and Marc.

I couldn't believe I was doing this

36 hours after my operation.

Fourteen and a half laps

to go. Lorenzo beginning to slow.

It was very emotional,

especially after I finished the race.

After knowing what you did.

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