#don't really care about any of these lads beyond retirement unless they're saying/doing stuff that's recontextualising their actual careers

[batsplat]

hello!!! this is going to be a weird question 😭 but do you think vale like the david alonso celebration?

this one: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBVVyQ-oIPU/?igsh=aGg4Ym0zYW11NWpw

(link) always up for weird questions!! but.... uh. gonna be honest, I have no real insight into valentino's thoughts on mr david alonso's post-race celebrations. is there any indication he had any strong feelings on them either way? I just kinda assume that at this point in the man's life, he has had so many people pay so many tributes to him that it just washes over him. alonso's not even the only high profile racer who paid him a tribute this weekend. ... I was going to say he was hopefully still. like. asleep, but given his sleep schedule there's a decent chance he would've been up for that race anyway lol. and I imagine he did see it, but. like. idk, it's nice I guess, probably he thought it was nice? but also I think if you're valentino rossi you do kind of assume that everyone you meet was some level of fan of you at one point or another, and you're probably right

I'm going to take a stab in the dark here and guess that the reason why someone might think valentino didn't like it was some sort of perceived proximity of alonso to marc? which, I mean. I guess? but also alonso isn't actually a marc protege, right, he's some kid who says he likes marc in interviews and has trained with him a few times. valentino's never been all that big on guilt by association, so I'd assume his feelings on the matter are at most 'slightly more ill-disposed towards the kid than he'd otherwise be', but even there I just. don't feel like he'd care that much. is the other hypothesis that it'd remind valentino of marc's hero worship of him? again, I do just struggle with this because for valentino, hero worship from young riders is such a neutral state of affairs... I mean, part of the problem with the marc/valentino rivalry was that valentino didn't take marc's idolisation of him completely at face value because he'd very much been there, done that. maybe he does care! but unless we get some wild david alonso x valentino rossi beef down the line, I'm gonna stick with my belief he probably hasn't thought about it all that much