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They gritted their teeth on track, working through the pain. This was the case for Dani Pedrosa, who finished seventh at COTA just two weeks after fracturing his wrist in Argentina. And also for Jack Miller. The day after the Texas race, the Australian has revealed on his personal blog that he ran the race with a fractured collarbone and injured shoulder. All down to a mountain bike accident prior to the race weekend.
Jack explains what happened: “I expected more coming into the weekend, but we struggled with the bike set-up from the get-go and I was struggling with a shoulder injury that I carried into the weekend as well. Not ideal. We kept pretty quiet about the shoulder all weekend, but now we’re done, I can admit that it wasn’t great. I was out training in California after Argentina, and I fell off doing some mountain biking."
The rider continues: “The injuries are nothing that some rest time and recovery can’t handle, but I ended up with some muscle damage, some bruising and a little tear on my rotator cuff on my right shoulder. And a crack in my collarbone as well." Despite this, Miller got the job done, finishing ninth ahead of Lorenzo and Petrucci on the GP18 bikes.
It's not the first time that a rider takes an injury sustained in training to the racetrack. Johnny Rea has done so, as have Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez, to name but a few. Jack is well aware of the risks: “I tell you, sometimes the time between the races can be more dangerous than the race weekends themselves”.
We just hope he's back in shape for Jerez, in two weeks' time.
