Unfortunately the crash of Saturday morning not only had consequences for the bike, there were other problems that didn’t become apparent until Sunday morning.
Battered and Bruised
After a night of rest, Kyle woke up with painful bruises all over his body, including his knee and shoulder, worst of all was the pain in Kyles right hand. For the warm-up and the race Kyle was treated with painkilling injections, but after a check over by the team doctor it is suspected that Kyle has broken a bone in his hand. Unfortunately, it looks to be a fracture of the fifth metacarpal of his right hand.
Kyles performance in the race was understandably diminished by this situation, so he had to fight for the lower ranking positions without being able in any way to express his or the bike’s potential, slipping slowly from 9th down to 19th, lapping on average two seconds per lap slower than in practice.
Down but not out
After the brilliant performances in practice it’s very disappointing not to have come away from Phillip Island with any points to show but Kyle and the team will dust themselves down and go again in the next round. Now, Kyle will have to undergo intensive medical treatment with the official doctor of Team Ranieri Med, to show up in Thailand in the best possible shape.
KYLE RYDE-
“I’m enormously sorry for the team, but today I just could not ride any better than that. During the night the pain in my hand got worse and worse and despite the painkillers in the race I just couldn’t focus on riding the bike at the limit. I’m sure we would have got a brilliant placement because we’ve got a very powerful bike”
“I’ve got some work to do with the team doctor to be ready for the next race in Thailand but we have 2 weeks for the bone to heal and I should be fit and ready to do the business in the next race