“I had a dream career until 2020,” Marc Marquez told ESPN, recalling his decorated time in MotoGP, the two-wheeled equivalent of Formula One. “And then overnight, and for the next two years, it was a nightmare.”
Before we get into the nightmare: the dream. Marquez is unquestionably among the three or four most talented riders to ever grace the sport. He is, an argument could be made, the greatest of all time.
By the time he was 19, he’d won two world championships in the series’ junior classes. His rookie season in MotoGP, he became its youngest-ever world champion at 20 years and 63 days. From that debut in 2013, Marquez went on to win six of the next seven titles.
When the COVID-delayed 2020 season began in July at Jerez in southern Spain, there was little reason to doubt he’d make it seven championships in eight seasons. That’s when the nightmare began.
With four laps to go and fighting with fellow Spaniard Maverick Vinales over second place, Marquez accelerated out of the long left-hand turn three, when his rear tire lost traction, suddenly regained it, and sent the Repsol Honda rider flying high over the handlebars and crashing down onto the pavement at around 100 mph. He rolled, tumbled, and eventually came to rest, where he remained hunched over on his knees in visible discomfort, favoring his right arm. He’d suffered a fractured humerus, the bone between the shoulder and the elbow.
He underwent surgery, a titanium plate affixed to the bone, and was ruled out of the following weekend’s Andalusian Grand Prix at the same circuit. Come that Friday’s free practice sessions, though, Marquez was back on the bike.
😱 @marcmarquez93 will undergo surgery after this horrendous crash at Jerez!
We wish the world champion the very best in his recovery! 💪#SpanishGP 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/BOSmDo7dfG
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) July 19, 2020
Any optimism for a quicker-than-anticipated recovery rapidly vanished. He’d abandon the event by qualifying on Saturday, and wouldn’t take part in another race for nine months.
“The first question after surgery is like, ‘When can I compete again?’,” Marquez said of his decision to return to action so quickly after undergoing an operation, a practice that is incomprehensibly commonplace in MotoGP. “One of the biggest mistakes in my career was coming back…
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