After suffering a fracture to his right foot at the Autodrom Most, Xavi Vierge (Honda HRC) was in a race against time to be able to compete at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli”. As his MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship rivals tested at the circuit a couple of weeks before the round, the Spaniard was fully focused on his recovery to get back on his CBR1000RR-R machine at the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round – in half the time the initial diagnoses suggested he would be out for.

BACK QUICKER THAN EVER: from eight weeks to four for his recovery period

Vierge was the innocent victim of a crash at Turn 1 in Race 2 at the Czech Round, when Jonathan Rea (Pata Maxus Yamaha) hit Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) who, in turn, hit Vierge’s Honda. Initially diagnosed with a suspected fracture of the tarsus bone in his right foot, the #97 went for further evaluations and it was decided surgery was the best course of action for multiple fractures to his cuboid bone.

The surgery was a success and helped speed up his recovery time. Initially, he was given an eight-week timeframe for his return but, after the surgery went well, this came down and he set his sights on returning at Misano, although he wasn’t fit enough to ride at the test. The extra two weeks between the test and the round enable Vierge’s recovery to step up a gear, putting weight on his foot just two weeks after the crash before returning to the bike in Italy – around a month after the injury, and in half the time he was initially given for his recovery.

Discussing his quicker-than-expected return to racing, Vierge said on Sunday at Misano: “In the beginning, the news was bad as the first impression was that it would be four weeks to put my foot on the ground and eight to be good again. After that, I said to the doctors that I had to be at Misano, so we made a plan. They decided to make a complicated surgery but, if the results were good, the recovery time would be shorter. They did an amazing job. As soon as it was finished, they said I could get from four weeks to two without putting my foot on the ground. I went every day to a hyperbaric chamber to work with the physio to try and heal as soon as possible. The first week was completely off, the second week I was in the gym without putting my foot on the ground. In the third week, I started to put my foot on the floor but just a few days before I jumped on the bike. The weekend got better because, in the beginning, I didn’t have the confidence with the foot to push hard. It’s well deserved. I took the risk but with these results, I took the correct decision to come here.”

THREE STRONG RACES FOR VIERGE: fighting for the top ten throughout the weekend

Misano was a solid weekend for the Barcelona native, who improved his finishing position in each race. He was 11^th in Race 1 before finishing 10^th in the Tissot Superpole Race – narrowly missing out on points and a third-row start in Race 2 – before claiming ninth in Race 2, with the latter including several battles across the 21-lap affair. He was often fighting with Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team), Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Ryan Vickers (Motocorsa Racing), with Gerloff eventually getting the better of the four-rider group.

Reflecting on his P11-P10-P9 results, Vierge said: “I’m super happy with the results. We got some solid results, almost three top tens, and some valuable points for the Championship. The most important thing was to continue working with the team to improve. It’s been a super tough weekend, but we achieved our goal so I’m very happy with that. I was going left more during the weekend but in Race 2, after the first seven laps, I was finished, and I tried to get to the end in the best position possible. We got some solid results so it’s very important and now we have a few weeks before the next round, where I’ll continue to work hard to arrive at 100%. I don’t know if I will get there but I’ll be at Donington much better than Misano.”

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