Veteran motorcycle journo Mick Matheson and family took a motorcycle trip throughout Italy recently and he put together this article and video on stalking Rossi.
My daughter Ariel is a massive Rossi fan. Yes, one of millions, and as irrepressible as the best of them.
She is on a mission to meet the great MotoGP champion.
From the moment we began talking about doing a month-long European motorcycle tour together, she insisted Valentino Rossi’s hometown of Tavullia had to be on the itinerary.
Ariel in the Rossi souvenir shop
My mistake was putting it almost at the end of the trip. By the time we got there she was virtually in a frenzy of anticipation.
Stalking didn’t seem like a scary thing to do at all …
As for me, no behaviour surprises me when Rossi is around. I’ve seen things. I’ve even watched female friends ambush poor Vale as he walked out of the toilet block behind the pits at Phillip Island. I was actually complicit in that one because I had to take the photo.
I really hoped that if we did find him in Tavullia, he wouldn’t recognise me when Ariel pounced on him while I caught it all on video.
So with all that in mind, we rode into Tavullia, not sure what to expect but knowing that one way or another we were going to have a Valentino Rossi experience.
Revhead Generations videos
* This is part one of an ongoing Revhead Generations video series. It’s not quite your typical family of four, and it’s not quite your typical family vacation. The Revhead Generations are dad Mick Matheson, stepmom Anne Baker, daughter Ariel Matheson and her boyfriend Jeff La Cram. On a Ducati Multistrada Enduro and Yamaha MT-09, they did a mad 6500km ride from France, across the Alps, down the Adriatic Coast, on to Greece and Crete and finally back north through Italy. It took almost a month and they hardly ever got pissed off at each other.Stay tuned for more Redhead Generations videos on MotorbikeWriter.com.
Ariel in the Rossi souvenir shop
