Motorsport Press Release of the Year

Goes to....

DR. CLAUDIO COSTA of the MotoGP Clinica Mobile (Mobile Hospital), for this update on the condition of the three riders injured at the start of Sunday's race:

This morning, Loris Capirossi left the Catalunya General Hospital with a smile on his lips, despite still suffering pains to his chest and abdomen and with bruises all over his body after the battle that he had to fight the day before, at the MotoGP race start.

That smile symbolically lights up the road that goes from Barcelona to Assen: on the Dutch circuit surround by green fields, Capirossi will ride his Desmosedici again in just a few days, and will once again be chasing his dreams.

Marco Melandri is still hospitalised in the same clinic, in a room in the Intensive Care department. The early diagnosis of head injury was fortunately modified to concussion after the hospital scans: concussion means no damage to the brain, just amnesia.

Marco could not remember anything after the accident. His memory is coming back now, although he can only remember what happened until just before the start of that fateful race. His left clavicle dislocation is less serious than we had first thought; his arm muscular stretching is luckily only mild. Marco is still suffering a lot of pain in his neck region, after rebelling against the threat of paralysis. The rider is well treated by the Spanish doctors, gathered around his bed like priests around the altar where Marco is celebrating his own resurrection.

Yesterday, the gods that had allowed a terrible accident to happen had also foreseen that the 3 riders would be able to use the resources hidden in the hearts of all human beings. Perhaps, the gods are not entirely malevolent. And they always spare a look from above for motorcyclists, who love to play chess against risk, danger and death, and during this troubling game, even manage to smile to the lady in black.