Manuel Poggiali retires

The motogp website reports that Poggiali has retired due to an ongoing physical condition. I often wondered why the former 125 and 250 champion had become so uncompetitive. He is only 25 years old and being forced to retire is such a shame.

[NinjaMaster]

Damn, what a shame. He was my boy in 125 and 250. Still, if having to retire at 25 from racing is the worst thing that happens in his life then he'll be very lucky.
All the best to ya Pogg for the future (I'm sure he reads this board!).

[jonny hurlock]

http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2008/Poggiali+departs+from+World+Championship+scene

anyway thanks for the memories, expressly in Estoril 2001, in 125 race, racing against Ui finished if memory serve me right a few hundreds of a second against each other at finishing line, Ui won that race, but Poggiali won the championship that year

[The Phantom]

I feel somewhat responsible, having let Manuel go from Team NoBlouse Racing just a fortnight ago... I knew it would be a blow, but did not expect this...

Best of luck in the future Manuel.

[leopard]

This is telling that the pressure is big. He might think that he won the titles uneasily. It need strong mentality to get out of the frightening part when he is riding the bike at the track. He might lose his way and should have been out of this circle, to enable him stand for the pressure.

Poggy, wish you luck.

[patnicholls]

It's a shame to lose a double champion from the sport, when he was on form he was a great talent.

Things went wrong in mid-2004 when he had an off-track accident, I think it was falling through a glass squash court wall, which I guess could have caused him some lasting physical damage (ligaments, muscle damage etc which would seem to make sense as he's not had any dry weather form which is more physical than the wet - he scored 6th in the wet in France this year). The injury may have also affected his confidence - I've written enough in the past about his head not really being into his racing which was probably rather unfair. If you're not comfortable doing something any more, you can't force yourself to be sometimes.

I wish him well for the future in whatever he does.

A few thoughts from him and Giampiero Sacchi on his career:

http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2008/Poggiali+comments+on+retirement+from+World+Champio nship

[leopard]

When he decided to have a career in racing he should have noticed that it is a tight competition and has full of risk and any probability can anytime happen. It's more his personal problem to terminate career relating to his ongoing physical problem, to start something new and to have more time for family. He can find challenge something riders look for at the grand prix, in which atmosphere they feel comfortable to perform the job.


`I don´t want to forget about racing completely, I love the atmosphere at Grands Prix, so I might get involved again in a different role,´ revealed the 25 year-old.