Cycle News

IN THE WIND P26 HAYDEN IS BACK! N icky Hayden was back in action after missing the last four MotoGPs, following radi- cal surgery to his troublesome right wrist. His return meant he was able to settle fears that the problem, which has grown worse throughout the season, might be a career-ender. "I don't talk like that or even think like that," Hayden said at the Grand Prix of Aragon in Spain. "I'm very determined for it not to be career ending." The determination was boost- ed by the response of the joint after two days of practice and qualifying, after just a couple of low-key dirt-track tests in the two weeks leading up to the race. "It's not giving me major prob- lems," he said. "It was a bit sore this morning, even on the outer palm, where I lost some meat. My hand's not strong, but that's not why I qualified 18th. It's not helping, but I haven't been riding in three months." The surgery, proximal row car- pectomy, removed one of two rows of bones in his right wrist, and while movement was cur- rently limited to "30 to 35 de- grees, the doctor thinks it will eventually get to 45 degrees. Be- fore the surgery, I had between eight and 10 degrees." Eleven weeks was "the lon- gest I've ever been off a bike" since earliest childhood, he said, before removing a surgical- brace glove to reveal a joint that looked considerably better than the swollen and obviously pain- ful condition on display at earlier races. He had lost some strength and muscle condition, obviously. "I put my glove on yesterday, and the glove was loose," he said. He had "barely enough" move- ment to operate the twist-grip fully, he said. "There's a few positions that I have to move my whole arm, a little bit in the downhill right-handers." So far, however, he had rejected the op- tion of a "fast" throttle. The injury dates back to the last race of 2011, when he was an innocent victim of a chain- reaction first-corner crash at Va- lencia. The scaphoid bone was broken, and never really healed, and started acting up really seri- ously at the first European round this year. "My life is just better now," Hayden said. "Even before I hadn't trained properly. Since Jerez everything I did would make the wrist sore." Ironically, the flare-up wasn't triggered by a crash, but hap- pened overnight during the Spanish GP. "The worst injury of my career happened when I was sleep- ing," he grinned. "At Jerez I had my best day of the year, then at dinner my wrist was aching a bit. Then I woke up in the middle of the night, and it had ballooned up. I'm glad it happened at a race weekend, because otherwise nobody would have believed it." Michael Scott Nicky Hayden returned to action in the Grand Prix of Aragon after missing four races due to his wrist injury. PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE

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