Nicky Hayden (Honda) always looks forward to the Indianapolis MotoGP round, and considers it his “home” race. This year, however, Hayden will be a spectator, rather than a participant. He underwent yet another surgery on his troublesome wrist in San Diego on July 17, and will sit out not only the Indy round on August 10, but the Brno race the following week.
Hayden is hopeful this latest surgery will solve the pain and motion problems that have recently prevented him from performing at his best. Hayden’s Honda Open class machine has been largely uncompetitive this year, lacking horsepower in comparison with the competition, but Honda has reportedly offered to increase performance next year by fitting its Open class bikes with pneumatic valves, and other upgrades.
Hayden will return to his Drive M7 Aspar Honda Team next year. He currently sits in 13th position in the championship. He will be replaced at the two races by WSB rider Leon Camier.
I’d like to see him step back and go WSB or quit. He and Colin have risked too much to just ride around mid pack or less. Too bad we don’t have a racing series in the States for them to come back to and enjoy their home country and race bikes.
I’d like to see him collect near 20 years worth of checks same as barros, capirossi, ceII, checa, corser, VR46, etc have all done… and then quit. the states have 2 grandprixs, he ain’t going anywhere.
Should Rossi do the same?: http://www.motorcycledaily.com/2013/07/rossi-vs-hayden-at-ducati-what-the-numbers-tell-us/
Nicky is older and wiser now than some of his competitors.
Agreed, there is taking risks, and then there is risk taking. Some have figured this out and some have not.
I don’t know about that. I’m a huge Nicky Hayden fan but I wonder if he is trading the hope of racing for a couple more years for major wrist problems for the rest of his life. Proximal row Carpectomy is the last surgical step before fusing the wrist. The standard recovery time is 6 months but he is going to try to race again in 6 weeks. The side effects are carpal tunnel problems and increased chance of wrist dislocation.
We see this a lot in motorcycle racers in their 30’s. They keep pushing and pushing trying to hold onto their ride until finally forced to retire by a crippling injury.
re: “I wonder if he is trading the hope of racing for a couple more years for major wrist problems for the rest of his life.”
screw it. when the time comes, lop the wrist off complete and sort a bionic. he’ll have the dough and the technology will be perfected by then, ya know like RoboCop. get his autograph, shake his hand and he’ll hit you with 400 FT-LBS. there, take that with ya.