It’s just come out that Marc Marquez had a crash on an off-road bike, banged his head and ruled himself out of the Algarve Grand Prix at Portimão this weekend. It’s not the first time the eight-time world champion has injured himself ‘training’, and I wonder how long it’s going to be before Honda take his motocross bike off him.
I completely understand that to ride an MX bike, you’ve got to be at the peak of your physical fitness. And motocross is a good way to maintain that fitness. In fact it’s one of the best ways to maintain ‘bike-fitness’. But it’s also one of the best ways in the world to injure yourself. Or knock yourself out. And that’s what Marc keeps doing.
The story we got told last year when he rebroke his arm was that he did it ‘opening a window’. But I don’t believe that for a second. I know recently-operated-on-limbs can be weak, but what type of windows was he opening? Nah, pull the other one, Honda. He crashed his MX bike didn’t he, whilst he was busy ‘training’?
Just like he‘s done this time. If you read the statement, they say he suffered slight concussion after a crash on Saturday. But after a couple of days rest, he’s still unwell… so it’s not ‘slight’ at all is it? It sounds like he’s had a right whopper.
Whopper
They say that he’s been assessed by doctors, and that ‘as a precautionary measure’ he will not race in Portugal this weekend. Now I’ve not read the MotoGP rule book cover to cover, but I’m fairly sure there will be something in there that says you can’t race a GP bike within a week of having concussion. No doctor in their right mind would suggest racing a bike, a week after you’ve been sparked out.
He is keeping his body and mind sharp on his MX bike, and I understand that. But at what price? Perhaps he isn’t that bothered about it, because he probably enjoys riding his off-road bike as much as he does his MotoGP bike. But if he carries on, it’s only a matter of time before he finishes off the arm that he’s already nearly destroyed. And then his MotoGP career could be over, and Honda have lost their star rider.
There are safer ways to keep fit. Join a gym. Buy a treadmill. Do some shagging.
If Marc Marquez doesn’t learn to stop crashing, Honda are going to take that MX bike off him. And if I’m being honest, I wouldn’t blame them if they did.
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Apparently Pol is going to spending the winter doing flat track and MX, so that he can learn how to deal with a bike that has no rear grip ( the Honda ). It’s apparently necessary to ride the bike loose, and the reason why Pol only does well on tracks with decent grip, or when the temp drops, and he has decent rear grip.
I know he lives in a posh house but the windows are nothing special!