Rossi and Stoner to retire?

British newspaper The Telegraph recently reported that motorcycle maestro Valentino Rossi would retire from MotoGP racing at the end of 2012.

Spanish magazine Solo Moto also claims that Casey Stoner intends to retire at the end of 2012, with the 26-year-old dual MotoGP world champion's reason for quitting to put his family first.

But both Stoner and Rossi have denied the reports as pure fantasty.

"Everyone seems quite good at stories and making them up for sure," said Stoner when questioned about his retirement.

"I've said many times before my career is not going to keep going for long. I won't be going into my middle 30s or anything like that. But until you hear it out of my mouth, don't listen to anything you read."

Rossi's retirement was reported in UK paper The Telegraph and quoted sources "close to the rider" and even his father Graziano Rossi and manager Davide Brivio as confirming the retirement.

The newspaper report says that he wants to pursue a career on four-wheels, possibly rallying, but the news appears to have been nothing more than a beat up by the UK paper, with Rossi himself laughing off the idea of retirement.

Rossi first denied the reports via Twitter and later spoke on radio about the reports. He said the lead up to summer always seems to ignite rumours about everything from his retirement, a move to Ferrari F1 and even to impending fatherhood.

Italy's most famous motorcycle racer also said that he was baffled by the report's origin, saying that he had no idea about the sources "close to the rider" that appeared in the story.