Valentino Rossi raced his last MotoGP race yesterday in Valencia. It is the end of an extraordinary career, but also of an incredible chapter in the history of this country and this sport. To which one cannot help but look back with joy and pride.

Who does this profession cannot refrain today from writing these lines. Even if this is not a sports journal, even if the spectres of SEO advise against it, even if all this will -immancurably- fall into a huge fatuous fire in which reason and legend will be confused for a few days. Even if one cannot tell whether it is reverence or respect, beauty or self-love, chivalry or already melancholy.

One writes these lines the way one writes the last letter at the end of a good trip, the way one takes the last souvenir photo before returning from vacation, the way one sends the last email before closing the computer and going to work somewhere else forever.

It is easy today to fall into sentimentality, open the drawer of memories and dig out an anecdote. Everyone, after all, has a story about Valentino Rossi. Like that time in the disco with Cesare Cremonini, or that other time in Tavullia when he was there eating pizza with all the guys from forever, or when he momentarily ran over that guy in the paddock with his moped. None of these stories are necessarily true or false, but neither does it matter: everyone has a story because this is their way of feeling a little closer to something that smacks of legend.

With Valentino ‘s farewell to two wheels -moreover, with his best race of the year- not only a chapter, but a piece of motorsport history closes. Net of the numbers, which are clearly extraordinary but do not complete the narrative around 46, Rossi had the great merit of being the most emeritus interpreter of a sport that for a good twenty years has recognized and identified with him. Never has any athlete had the same, symmetrical and perfect degree of overlap that Valentino has had with motorcycling.

In short, it is still unclear whether it is Rossi who is an icon of motorcycling, or motorcycling that is an icon of Rossi. While it is true that Valentino is much more than an extraordinary performer of the sport, it is also true that the MotoGP has changed so much from the rowdy, jubilant but also somewhat ungainly handful of daredevils of twenty-five years ago. In this, the two have helped each other, maturing together like old friends who get to know each other with skinned knees in the backyard and then stand there in suits and ties as witnesses at each other’s weddings.

For two decades, Vale has been the public face of a movement that has patiently and skillfully worked behind the scenes, cleverly renewing itself and growing with great management skills. Ferried by the popularity of the 46 and aware that it did not have to worry about keeping up the fire of enthusiasm, that the man from Tavullia was already taking care of those, Dorna put together an international, wildly popular, technologically highly advanced and future-oriented sports series. Valentino was there, taking the flashes and taming the media-hungry lion, leaving to Ezpeleta ‘s handshakes the expansion of the championship, the work with broadcasters, the outlining of a digital strategy that for years have made MotoGP one of the five most popular championships in the world on social networks.

There will be plenty of time to figure out the aftermath. Today is not a day for notaries or accountants. For once, one can and should leave the numbers aside and think about how much fun we had. Think about our favorite Valentino Rossi story. Like that time at SanSiro cheering on Inter when the guy spilled a beer on him at the bar, or when he took a long motorcycle ride from Misano to Tavullia to greet everyone or when you walk into VR46 -all mirrors and reflected lights- and find him sitting there with a world champion Yamaha parked next to his desk. These, too, true or false matter little.

Yet true and certain is one thing: Valentine does not leave a void; on the contrary. Like all greats he had the ability to lift hearts and leave behind a wonderful legacy. The cynic is quick to point out that estimates of the audience and commercial value of MotoGP without the Doctor is minus thirty percent, but forgets to tally up how much the man gave of tangible and intangible to the movement.

Intangible, yeah. Even those in this profession writing these lines today cannot help but skim the cream from the milk of this story with the point of a knife and understand that, first and foremost, the Valentinian legacy is measured in love. The love of an audience for its hero, of a country for its standard-bearer, of numerous generations for its winning, smiling, sympathetic standard-bearer. Past the customs of marketing, of audience data, of average engagement value, Valentino is and always will be the one who on Sunday, June 14, 2009, overtook Lorenzo on the Catalan moguls of the Barcelona circuit and won an extraordinary race.

But really, do you guys remember those Sundays there? Do you remember on those summer afternoons, on the screens in bars and apartment buildings, after lunch, do you remember how much we laughed? And how proud we were of that guy, who beat the whole world, who waved the tricolor and had “old hen makes good stock” written on his T-shirt. When we had to explain to the Germans on vacation in Romagna what that WLF on the suit meant. No, really, but do you guys remember those Sundays there? Do you remember how good it was?

Rossi’s farewell to racing does not take Valentino out of the equation that will shape the MotoGP of the coming years. While the VR46 brand and the ardor of the fans will transcend the presence or absence on the tracks, just as they have transcended the presence or absence of the sporting result, in the same way the new generation of VR46 riders will hold high the name of Tavullia and the legacy of a project that-we can say it-has saved the sport, at least at the Italian level.

But today, precisely, is not yet the time for predictions and forecasts. Tomorrow also deserves respect and calm. It deserves tomorrow to simply be tomorrow, and be what it is. For today, once again, thank you Vale.