Sporting journalists will wax lyrical about golden eras in sport; that such-and-such decade was greater than our present cycle, and champions of a bygone era held themselves with greater poise and dignity than the current crop currently on offer.
For those who subscribe to the above standpoint, I would hastily direct their attention to this year’s MotoGP World Championship.
Few men have ever become world champion without facing the dark side of their game, and Valentino Rossi is no exception.
Already a nine-time MotoGP World Champion, the diminutive Italian suffered the ignominy of joining his homeland’s precious Ducati, just as they were entering what would be a horrible 2011-12.
Always the showman, Rossi was perpetually luminous for the cameras, but while he may have passed his own internal examination of character, he neglected the nuances of his race-craft.
“Why doesn’t he just retire?” the motorsport world must have thought. Surely he had nothing more to prove?
Casey Stoner had already packed his bags for an ill-fated jaunt in the V8 Supercars development series, and a return to Yamaha with recent double world champion Jorge Lorenzo would surely amount to nothing short of attending cooking classes with Sylvia Plath.
Not so with Rossi. If there is one truth in life, pain is probably the most appreciable.
Like Ayrton Senna before him, Rossi is acutely aware the threat of torture is something to be feared more so than the threat of death.
With Senna’s tragic demise in 1994, fate robbed us of the opportunity to observe Senna and Michael Schumacher do battle at that most tantalising of sporting apexes; a master at the peak of his powers battling the pretender to his crown, who himself would go on to become a legend of the sport.
With Rossi in 2015, we are getting a second chance to witness such a moment.
Rossi’s return to Yamaha in 2013 saw him take his first win – at Assen – yet the overall picture of the season was one of a man struggling to adapt to a bike tailored around his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.
The arrival of wunderkind Marc Marquez further compounded the need to distil new wine into an ageing bottle – the response seeing Valentino end 2014 with two victories, 13 podiums and his highest points total since his last title-winning season in 2009, albeit finishing second in the championship behind Marquez.
One would expect the rigors of such a comeback to have taken a significant toll on the 36-year old, yet it appears as though his renaissance has had a greater effect upon Marquez’s form this year, and roused Lorenzo from what could only be described as a 2014 season spent in hibernation.
Lorenzo responded to Rossi’s opening round win in Qatar with four successive victories, yet it was Rossi who held the championship lead with consistent podium finishes.
Meanwhile, Marquez confounded the form-guide with impetuous, and often race-ending, overtaking moves.
Qualifying however, was still an area that Valentino was still left wanting, often having to play catch-up from eighth on the grid as Lorenzo cruised to the finish.
At the beginning of the season his qualifying deficit didn’t pose an issue, with Jorge lacking in pace and Marc finding his 2015-spec Honda less than compliant.
As the season reached Jerez however, Lorenzo struck serious form and Rossi could no longer afford to gift his team-mate such an advantage.
“I’m competitive in the race but I struggle so much in practice, too much” admitted Rossi in Spain.
“When you start behind sometimes you can make a good result.
“But it’s more difficult in the last races with Jorge starting at the front he was impossible to catch”.
But how does a 36-year old, 20 years into an unparalleled career built on refined methodology, change his approach?
In Barcelona, Rossi stepped outside himself by investigating new settings. He even tried a completely different chassis and found an immediate improvement in his one lap pace.
This revelation offered a devastating response in Assen this weekend, with Rossi recording a pole position time that shattered Casey Stoner’s lap record by over a second.
This set up the duel everyone had been waiting for.
Rossi the master, locked in a straight fight with Marquez, the pretender to his crown.
As Valentino led away, Marc shadowed the Italian’s every move, always remaining within striking distance.
With seven laps to go, Marquez finally showed his hand, scything down the inside of Rossi, suggesting the duel was now over.
Rossi had other ideas, retaking the position only for Marquez to argue the point. Despite holding the inside line, Rossi defied physics by holding station in the 22-year old’s periphery, not only seizing the advantage but seemingly breaking the Spaniard’s resolve.
Marquez allowed himself one last roll of the dice heading into the final turn, leading Rossi for the briefest of moments, perhaps even forgetting who he was dealing with.
The rivals touched, with centrifugal force halting Marquez’s momentum.
Instinctually, Rossi sacrificed the corner, riding through the gravel toward certain victory, taking a moment to glance back at his young rival, as if to say ‘it ain’t over till I say so old boy’.
It was a sight to behold, and one we are unlikely again in our lifetime.
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