One thing that always amazed me about professional racers was not only how they could get up and walk away after a massive crash, but then jump on their spare bike and go even faster.
A few years ago I worked for Colin Schiller, a man who’d not only set up Fast Bikes, but had also seen the likes of Shane Byrne, Rob Frost, Gary Mason and Sean Emmett come through the ranks and had watched them perform on both road and racetrack on countless occasions. In short, there wasn’t much he hadn’t seen done on a road bike.
The weather was good, I was feeling good – hell, it was my birthday and we were off to St Tropez for a night out. I was, as the kids say, buzzing.
The thing is, I didn’t end up going out in St Trop. You see, I was riding a 2003 R1 on its stock Dunlop Ditchfinder road tyres on road pressures, really hard. Naturally it all went wrong and I ended up in Frejus hospital with my right foot pointing the wrong way having high-sided and badly broken my ankle. I’m still not sure if Colin had ever seen that done before, but I don’t think he was particularly impressed…
Recovery was long and painful and when I got on a bike again, my right hand didn’t seem to work. No more could it twist a throttle fully, or at least not until my inbuilt spirit level told me it was 100% safe to do so. It was embarrassing riding with old mates. “What’s up, Rob?” and “Have you lost your bottle?” were the most commonly spoken sentences for what felt like months. And they were right. I had lost my bottle and was constantly worried about high-siding and hurting myself again. So it seemed a good idea three years later to go racing…
When I high-sided at Almeria in pre-season testing last year, I thought there would be snow on my boots, I was shot that high off the bike. Searing pain tore down the left hand side of my groin and when I tried to stand up, I fell over with pain. I had a diagonal fracture of my pelvis, was in a wheelchair for a week, on crutches for three days after that and then, a fortnight later I was racing in MRO Supersport at Brands Hatch, beating some fast riders and very nearly getting on the podium, despite the pain and the sickness from all the painkillers.
So what had changed? The more you ride a bike the more you understand. The more you race, the more there is to understand and the more desire there is to get back on and start pushing it again. Knowing why you crashed, be it through your own mistake, being punted off or crashing on oil makes it easy to get back on and ride just as hard without giving it a second thought, as does, in the case of a pro rider, a huge salary and a lifestyle to uphold. And it’s so very true what they say about getting straight back on again – the four month lay-off due to the nasty ankle break gave me far too much time to reflect on what happened.
After a crashy four days this month, I went back to Cadwell and beat my personal best by 0.4 of a second. I’m no longer amazed at how well-paid professional riders get back on and go faster, they do it because it’s their job.
But it’s can’t be all about money, else so many skint club racers wouldn’t ride injured. Whether you’re fighting for the BSB title or scrapping it out to be king of the MZs. It’s all just part of a racer’s psychological make-up.
Anyone that hasn’t raced will never understand it. So don’t explain it to them. Just let them think that you’re a rock hard, super-tough lunatic. Works for me…