The motorsports legend finally ended his incredible career after the𓂃 2021 s🅰eason, but his decision to quit came months earlier and coincided with other huge news.

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

“I𓆉n the last few years when I was struggling more, I also talked about it with Carlo, my trainer,” he said on Gianluca Gazzoli’s podcast.

“We said: ‘You have to race until you r🥀eally can’t take anymore, so you don’t have regrets afterwards’.

“There were a lot of riders who qu🍨it too soon. 

“But they couldn’t stay💎 away. T🔯hey came back and messed 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 12thꦍ’.

“Assen was an important 🌱race because it is one 𒊎of my favourite tracks.

“It is one of the tracks where I’ve won 10 times, so it has alwಌays been a bit of my home.”

But something else was happening in Rossi♈’s life simu🐭ltaneously.

“Before leaving, I went to lunch with Francesca. She said: ‘I don’t like coffee anymore, str꧑ange because I’ve always liked coffee, maybe I’llꦡ do a test in the next few days’.

“I told her ‘fine’ and left for Assen. While I was there, I didn’t th♓ink about her test.

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

“When﷽ you are in the g💎ravel you say: ‘If I need a sign to stop, it is this!’

“I꧅magine my state of mind becau🥃se it means giving up a life that you had for 25 years.”

Rossi retu𝔉rned to Italy knowing that his career was 𒊎coming 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 f💎or dinner but she said ‘no, you come here’.

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

“It happen𝔍ed all together - I found out I was becoming 🌞a father on the day that I decided to stop racing.”

Rossi an🎃d Francꦦesca had their baby daughter in March 2022, by which time the MotoGP icon had retired.