The motorsports legend finally ended his incredible career after the 2021 season, but his decision to quit ca🌟me months earlier and coincided with other huge news.

Rossi explains how he came to the difficult decision toღ stop.

“In the la🐼st few years when I was struggling more, I also talked about it with Carlo, my trainer,” he sa﷽id on Gianluca Gazzoli’s podcast.

“We said: ‘You haꦗve to raꦰce until you really can’t take anymore, so you don’t have regrets afterwards’.

“Ther༒e were a lot of riders who quit too soon. 

“But they couldn’t sta🐼y away. They came back and messedꦛ things up.”

Rossi raced on for 12 years after the last of his seven MotoGP championships.

He was 42 when the time finally came to retire.

“I decided to stop after Assen,” he said.

“I wanted to race again but I said to myself: ‘Let’s see if I am competitive because I can’t come here to 🌜finish 12th’.

“Assen was an im🐟p𒐪ortant race because it is one of my favourite tracks.

“I🐻t is one of the trac✤ks where I’ve won 10 times, so it has always been a bit of my home.”

Bu▨t something else was happening in Rossi’s life simultaneously.

“Before leaving, I went to lunch with Francesca. She said: ‘I don’t like coffee anymore, strange🧸 because I’ve always liked coffee, maybe I’ll d𓃲o a test in the next few days’.

“I told 🉐her ‘fine’ and left for Assen. While I was there, I didn’t think abou💜t her test.

“In the race I had a bad start, crashꦡed, I was fighting with Enea Bastianini,ꦓ I wrecked the bike.

“When you are﷽ in the gravel you say: ‘If I need a si😼gn to stop, it is this!’

“Imagine my state of mind because it means giving up a life that you had for 25 🎉years.”

Rossi returned to Italy kno♍wi🔯ng that his career was coming to an end, but he hadn’t told anybody yet.

Bigger news was still to come.

“When I arrived I told Francesca to come out for dinn🃏💛er but she said ‘no, you come here’.

“I had the impression that she wanted to tell 🏅me something.

“It happened all together - I fou𝕴nd out I was becoming a father on the day that I decided to 🅷stop racing.”

Rossi and Francesca had♒ their baby daughter𒈔 in March 2022, by which time the MotoGP icon had retired.