Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

putting me back together," Doohan said. "It's not a big problem. These guys here, Dr. Ting and Dr. Louie, have done a fantastic job, and the people here have looked after me fantastically. The pain's not too bad, you know. They're releasing me out of here today. I don't know, you tell me what it'd be like to have broken bones a couple of weeks after you'd done it." Ting says that Doohan is an iron man, perhap the tougheSt patient he's ever helped. Like everything el e, Doohan doesn't take much credit for being a tough guy. "Everybody is different," he said. "Basically, rve just got to heal up the best I know how. There's no heroism, there's no 'Look how cool I am.' It's just that I'm broke at the moment and I have to try and get better. If I'm in pain, people know I'm in pain. If I'm not in pain, then r don't pretend to be in pain. That's just the way I do things." Doohan will be here for a while. He's opting to rehabilitate in the United States, and he won't go home until the birth of Mick and his girlfriend Selina Sines' first child in August. Selina will depart in the coming weeks to prepare for the baby, leaving Doohan to begin the arduous task of getting back to peak fitness. In between, he hopes to make a few trips to Europe "to support the team and do a charity day up in England." Then it could be a return to action in Bmo on Augu t 22; if not Bmo, then at one of the following races. The key here is that Doohan will return' - even if he doesn't know for exactly how long. "I've never said I'm retiring, and I'm not saying I'm retiring now," Doohan said. ''I'm contracted to race the '99 season, and I crashed - it's not the end of the world.·I guess it's different in a way, but it's the same as a golfer having a bad day. My bad day is a little bit different, . but it doesn't really make too much difference. I'm not afraid to put on the leathers, put on a helmet and jump on a Mick Doohan was in a good mood the day he was released from the hospital in Menlo Park, California - despite the fact that he'd only recently undergone surgery that saw screws, pins and a bone graft performed on his broken right leg. motorcycle. It wouldn't make any differen e to me if I could put them on right now and go again. My confidence isn't shot at all. I made a mistake, and I paid the price. I hit a wall and did myself a little bit of injury." So Doohan's "little bit of injury" isn't enough to keep him down, and he says he's not retiring. He does, however, mention the "R" word in a way that he hasn't mentioned it before. "We'll take it one step at a time," Doohan said of his future. "I do this for fun, and at the moment it's not a lot of fun. Every year I've been saying I'm going to stop, and whether this year is that, I'm not sure just yet. I'll make an announcement every year what my plan are for the following year. Chasing championships isn't something I really do - chasing race wins is what it's all about. If I get enough wins to be champion, then well and good.. I've been fortunate enough to win five championships, and I've put in a lot of work and it paid off. I couldn't put in any more, and I couldn't get any more out of it, so I'm pretty happy with what I've done. If I were to stop today, at least I know that I've got everything out of it that I wanted to get out of this sport and I'm pretty happy with it." But just when he starts to hint at retirement, he can bring a smile back to the face of any racing fan by adding, ''I'm still looking forward to hopping back on a bike." Since he's been in Northern California, Doohan has been visited by threetime SOOcc World Champion Wayne Rainey. He's also been swamped by getwell letters and faxes, the majority of which come from his homela.nd. 'The Australian public has been very supportive, and I'd like to thank everyone for send ing their faxes and well wishes," Doohan said. "It's amazing to realize that people feel this way about me. It's a shame they're not congratulation faxes, but they definitely mean a lot to me, and that's one of the reasons why I do it - because the public out there loves it so much and I can give them what they want." One of Doohan's injuries that didn't get much publicity is the one to his shoulder. That shoulder, in fact, is still suffering from partial paralysis, though Ting is confident that there is no permanent damage. The bod tuner W hen most of the top road racers in the world fall do....", and get hUTt, the first thing they do is call Dr. Arthur Ting. The next thing they do is fly to San Francisco, California. It doesn't mailer if they get hurt at Daytona, or if they get hurt in Brazil. They still end up at Ting's. He is to his art what Doohan is to road racing: the best. And the riders know it. Ting believes the first road racer he worked on may have been Kermy Roberts - Senior! He knows he's worked on KurtiS Roberts and Kenny Jr. since, and they are on a long list that includes Doohan, Wayne Rainey, Miguel DuHamel, Jason Pridmore and several others. He works hand in hand with Dr. Kevin Louie and several other top orthopedic surgeons to do exactly what these guys want done: He gets them back on track in peak physical condition in a shorter period of time than normal. . "1 just believe that Dr. Louie and Dr. Ting and the other doctors involved, they know my history," Doohan says of why he chooses to come to California. "They know the other work rve had done - tlley were involved with some of it. TheiT expertise is second to none throughout the world, and I think some of the work they've done is unbelievable. I just feel confident here. Basically, [ don't know what kind of treatment I'm going to get anywhere else - but I know here. America pretty much sets the standard for medicine around the world ~s far as first-class treatment and new inventions, SO why not come to the best place there is? These doctors here are at the top of their league in medicine. Why put yourself in front of ti,e ball again; why not go straight to the good guys? That's why I ~ame straight to San Francisco." If Doohan speaks highly of Ting, then the admiration is mutual. Ting says Doohan is the toughest of the tough. "It's quite remarkable," Ting said of Doohan's release from hospital just two weeks after his crash. "But in dealing witl, Mick before and his past injuries, it doesn't surprise nte. I think it's a true product of his own protoplasm, his own makeup, his biology, of his body being able to heal so quickly. Mentally, he's done a phenomenal job. He's always had a real positive attitude. He's a very stoic patient and he requires very little pain medication. Quite frankly, I've probably never seen anyone like him. He's probably our best patient in regards to that." Despite his strong constitution, Doohan's injuries are severe and shouldn't be taken lightly, Ting said. "He's still healing," Ting said. "His blood count is down, so we're still monitoring that. He lost a significant amount of blood. His wounds are looking pretty well, and they should be healed by the end of this week. r think the hospital atmosphere is something tl,at he does not enjoy. He'd rather be on his own than having nurses come in every few hours to take his blood pressure and his temperature. We'll have follow-up X-rays, morotor his blood count. And he also suffered partial paralysis to his left shoulder, which is recovering slowly. Based on the exam by the specialist, there's an excellent prognosis that he will recover from it, and he has already started to. It's his left shoulder, and originally he was unable to move it." A team of four surgeons worked on Doohan on May 14. Two trauma experts worked on Doohan's right tibia, the most severe of his injuries. Two others repaired the dislocation/fracture of his left collarbone and then moved to his left wrist, which was plated and screwed. In addition to screws and pins, a somewhat experimental bone cement was used to graft the top of Doohan's tibia. When asked if an August return is a reasonable expectation for Doohan, Ting said: "Anything is reasonable for him. I don't want to speculate, but at the same time it wouldn't surprise me." ''I've got a little bit of movement in the left shoulder, but I still can't move it forward that much," Doohan said. "The doctors seem to think that it will come on. My hand's working all right, and I can flex my bicep. I guess it's just an impact injury. I won't be lifting too many beers off the bar at the moment, but I'm quite confident that it's getting better now. Definitely, since I've been in here, it's gotten a lOO-percen t better from where it was. I could hardly lift my shoulder at all. I'm quite confident that by the end of the month it should be back to normal." While rehabilitating over the next several months, Doohan is certain to keep up on Grand Prix racing. The SOOcc WoJOld Championship is now wide open. As Carlos Checa SO aptly pointed out, Grand Prix racing without Doohan is "like an orchestra without its conductor." Doohan thinks the title fight will go to the very end. "It's hard to say wha t will happen," Doohan said. "At the first two race tracks, (Kenny Roberts) Junior and Suzuki tested their brains out. They got the results they were after, but now the work's going to happen for them when they get back to Europe. The Europeans are back in Europe. I think definitely Alex (Criville) has a good shot at it - he really has to put it toget:'!er tllis year. I think last year, really, he should have done the business. I was on my ear a few times, and I broke down once - he really should have capitalized on that. ow he's got another opportunity this year. If he doesn't make it this year, it's going to be hard work for him. Junior is riding well, and he's matured a lot in the last 12 months, and he's working hard off the bike. They've also got the Suzuki working really well. Then we have to see what (Max) Biaggi is going to do - how strong he's going to become. It'll just be to see if his head over~omes his ability. If he can tay grounded, then I think he's got a prospect as well. Alex will be under more pressure, but for me that kind of pressure drives me. We don't really know how he performs under pressure yet. We saw last year that Biaggi folded under pressure, and we've just got to wait and see". Pressure is a hard thing to cope with - riding and not thinking about the championship. A couple of them have been in a championship-leading position before, but not when it counts. I guess we've got to wait and see how they perform when it gets to the point where they start thinking, 'Should I be racing, or should I be COllservative?' It's harder than just going out saying, 'This is a race, so let's race.'" And they will race, but they will do it without their champion. And although the, racing may suffer without llim and an era may truly be drawing to a close, Mick Doohan's going to be all right. That's what counts most of all. - N cu c: ::J ..., 21

• Cover