HITTING THE APEX is the inside story of six fighters -six of the fastest motorcycle racers of all time -and of the fates that awaited them at the peak of the sport. It's the story of what is at stake for all of them: all that can be won, and all that can be lost, when you go chasing glory at over two hundred miles an hour on a motorcycle. Nobody knows the ferocity of the competition better than Valentino Rossi. From 2001 to 2005, he won five MotoGP championships in a row. He was the undisputed king of the sport. But by 2010, Rossi had his hands full. The men who could beat him had arrived. The battles that raged from 2011 to 2013 generated the extremes of triumph and tragedy which mark out grand prix motorcycle racing not just as a sport for extreme athletes, but as an arena for true gladiators. There has never been a time like it in motorcycle sport and now, with both Marco Simoncelli and Casey Stoner gone, there never will be again. Hitting The Apex is the story of the fastest riders and the greatest years in motorcycle racing history.