This is the paradox of a motorcycle sport during which the riders take big risks. But if they get seriously injured, it's often in training. And not during the Grands Prix. Better still, the trend is that it is on a bicycle more than on a motorcycle that the most serious accidents occur. The Moto3 rider Albert Arenas is the latest example. He has come a long way after a misadventure with a certain Alex Rins...
A training accident prevented Albert Arenas to go to Termas and Austin. The KTM rider is already 35 points behind in the Moto3 world championship. A liability that he will want to start to fill from the next meeting in Jerez for which his doctors have declared him fit.
The two-time Grand Prix winner will indeed make his return to Jerez after missing the Argentine and Texas Grand Prix due to injury. The cause was this road traffic accident while training on a bike. A violent fall from which he was relieved with a torn spleen requiring an operation.
MotoGP.com asked the Spaniard how he recovered from his injury. “ There were some difficult days, but I am now happy to know that I am fine and that I can drive in Jerez without any problems. On Tuesday, the latest computer tomography scan showed that I would be ready for Jerez » he declared, relieved.
What exactly happened? Arenas trained on a bike with Alex Rins, the Suzuki official in MotoGP. “ It was the last training before our departure for Argentina “, said the KTM rider. “ We left our house and arrived at a roundabout. There was a hole, a sewer manhole installed in the street and I didn't see it. I looked ahead. Suddenly the handlebars hit me, I jumped and the bike stabbed me in the side. The impact was very hard. I thought everything was fine, but I was having trouble breathing and didn't feel well ».
The doctors’ diagnosis initially caused a shock: “ the doctors scared me and my loved ones, because an injury to the spleen, like it or not, is always an emergency. I was in a kind of shock when they told me because I thought I would be leaving for Argentina the next day “, remembers the 22-year-old Spaniard.
Fortunately, the operation and recovery went smoothly and there was nothing standing in the way of a return to the Spanish Grand Prix. Until what point Arenas will be in good shape at Jerez, he doesn’t know it himself: “ The broken rib gives me the biggest concern and I don't know how it will go on the bike, because I have to try. I now train as if everything were normal, to get back into 100% perfect shape. Friday, when I get back on the bike, I'll really see how I feel. The goal is to be 100% at Jerez” he declares optimistic, especially because he has not yet canceled his hopes of a Moto3 title.
At the end of the first Grand Prix in Doha, the KTM rider of the Sama Qatar team Ángel Nieto finished sixth, and he moved to 16th place in the general championship standings: he regrets 35 points over his colleagues Jaume Masiaa et Aron Canet. A delay which can still be made up in the 16 remaining races. “ Yeah, that sounds good” smiled Arenas.
« It is clear that you can catch up, but I have to be aware that this is not possible in one or two races. I have to take it step by step and not get stiff. I think I have to stick with it, it's possible and I can come back. The injury was not the result of a mistake on the bike, but something that can happen to anyone. I made the most of my recovery to come back and fight to the limit”.
Ironically, we will notice that the doctor who gave him discharge was not completely in good shape either!
