Rossi won the first 2010 race in Qatar

The World Champion got his title defence off to a winning start in the 2010 season-opener.

Valentino Rossi’s bid to win his eighth premier class title got off to the best possible start on Sunday, when the Italian took victory at the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar. Rossi had to battle hard to establish himself in the lead before eventually winning by a gap of just over a second.

Aided by a crash from rival Casey Stoner early in the race, Rossi still had to deal with the forceful challenge of Andrea Dovizioso whom he eventually held off to win under the floodlights for the first time, having last won at Losail in 2006 in the daytime. It was also a Fiat Yamaha one-two with team-mate Jorge Lorenzo placing second.

"I got a fantastic start but I wasn't quite fast enough and was suffering on the straight. I lost some time passing Pedrosa and by then Stoner was quite far ahead of me, I thought then that it was going to be hard to catch him!” explained Rossi. “Then he made a mistake and crashed, which was bad luck for him but crucial for us.”

Motorcycle legends Travis Pastrana #199 a.k.a the crazy flying man

Slight introduction

What you get is what you see in the title, a man who is genuinely great guy, funny and passionate who is also freakingly talented on two and in the last years four wheels.

Pastrana's acomplishments are really legendary: he became world freestyle MX (motocross) champion at age 14, five -time US amateur MX champion, two-time Canadian amateur mx champion. The youngest rider ever who represented the United States at the Motocross des Nations in France, 125cc pro national outdoor champion, 125cc East Supercross Series champion, and most succesful competitor in the history of  X-Games freestyle MX.

The last couple of years he had been pretty amazing on four wheels, too, as he demonstrated in the Rally America Series. But despite the success stories the superstar has maintained a reputation of a total no-brainer who is just being himself - never ending stunts and tricks, shows, killer records, and a lot of stupidity into the whole thing.