No🎀w imagine it was Rossi’s idea, and he was speeding off in freezing temperatures.

A remarkable story about Rossi’s trademark cheekiness has been recalled by Guido Meda, the Italian MotoGP journalist who has been side-by-side with the legend throughout h✤is career.

"We were around the mid-2000s and Valentino Rossi was already the gr🌼eat established champion we have known, at the height of his popularity,” Meda bega❀n.

"We had been guests of Fabio Volo [a musician from Italy] for a broad♛cast and I had arrived at the motorcycle studios on a brand new MV Agusta Brutale.  They had just launched it, it had just come out, and I had it on trial. 

“When we went out in the evening, Vale noticed that I was on a motoꦺrcycle and🐼 began to ask me questions about this Brutale, how it was going, how I was. 

“Until the fateful 🧜question: ‘Will you let me try iꦛt?’”

Meda shuddered. The greatest talen𝓡t in motoღrcycle racing was asking to test a bike that Meda didn’t actually own, in horrible conditions.

“A bike that wasn’t mine,” Meda said. “In the Milanese night and with the asphalt a bi✨t damp!

“I was not quiet but I could not say no! How can you tell V♏alentino Rossi you don't trust him?”

The seven-time premier class world champion and icoওn of MotoGP hopped onto the bike and vanished into the darkness🔯.

"It was crazy cold,” said Meda. “Vale ha♏d told me shortly before that I was crazy to ride a motorcycle in those temperatures. 

“It was night, there was also a bit of fog and I saw it disappear iꦜn a few seconds, with the engine playing at full sp💧eed."

Naturally, M�🥀�eda need not have worried. The bike was returned soon after, with the greatest talent of his generation smiling.