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

Rossi explains how he 🔜came to thܫe difficult decision to stop.

“In the la🥂st few yღears 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 reall༺y can’t take anymore, so you don’t have regre🅘ts afterwards’.

“♎There were a൲ lot of riders who quit 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 competitiv💫e because I can’t come here to finish 12th’.

“Assen was an important ra🥀ce because it is one of my favourite tracks.

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

But so𓆏mething 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 do a test in the next few days’.

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

“In the race I had a bad start♌, crashed, I was fighting with Enea Bastianini💖, I wrecked the bike.

“When you are in the gravel you say: ‘If I nee𒁃d a sign to sto❀p, it is this!’

“Imagine my state of mind because it means giꦛving up a life that you had𓆉 for 25 years.”

Rossi return👍ed to Italy knowing 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 Fran𝐆cesca to come out for dinner but she said ﷺ‘no, you come here’.

“I had the impression that she wanted to te𒁏ll 🤡me something.

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

Rossi and Francesca had their b🅰aby daughter in March 2022🗹, by which time the MotoGP icon had retired.