New MCN Sport November 24: Bike racing 2011 - the definitive review

 
Rossi: “We can’t finish the story like this”
Valentino Rossi: Motorcycle racer, global superstar, under achiever, human being. Lately it’s not been easy, he tells MCN’S Matthew Birt in an exclusive interview. But he believes he can win again.

 The inner peace of Carlos Checa
It’s taken a lifetime of learning and a boundless thirst for knowledge, but Carlos Checa has finally found a way to live with ‘the stupidity of being human’. The World Superbike crown? That’s just a happy by-product.

Farewell JT
He was the super-fit riding god who played in a band, made women swoon, and won two WSB titles. But for a career-ending injury there might have been more. So what’s next for James Toseland when racing is all he’s known?

 
2011 and 2012 BSB bikes side-by-side
In 2012 BSB becomes the world’s first superbike championship to ban electronics. Instead, controlling crazy corner entries and smearing 200bhp on the exits will be down to old-school brain, nerve and sinew. And the riders think that’s fine.

Roads pictures of the year
Photographer Stephen Davison goes to more UK and Irish road races than any sane or still-married human being. Leaving aside the TT, these are his photographs of the season, featuring riders such as Ryan Farquhar and the always-aggresive Michael Dunlop.