Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad Italia Superbike Team) underwent successful surgery last Friday at Lyon’s Clinique du Parc, following his spectacular crash in Race 2 at Laguna a week ago. The French rider escaped with just a talus bone fracture, which will need some time to fully heal. Given the long break ahead of the next event, scheduled for September 7-9 at Jerez, Barrier is confident he will be able to contest the Spanish Round.

“Two screws were placed into my left talus bone” he told WorldSBK.com.” The operation lasted one and a half hours and now I need to rest for two weeks before starting rehab in the pool. After three or four weeks I will hopefully be able to start cycling again, so I’m confident of being back at Jerez.”

Barrier clearly remembers every second of the accident: “I passed Iddon on the inside at the last turn, but my bike wheelied a bit on the exit and when he came past, he hit me on the side and the handlebar of my bike got caught up with his machine. I would have got away with it if my front wheel had not been lifted from the ground, but I lost control of my BMW and fell badly. I was lucky that it was my foot that hit the pit wall. Those were scary moments, because I could hear many other bikes passing by very close to my head!”