By Dean Adams
The news that Marc Marquez has been cleared to race again broke last week. His hellish journey back from his injured arm will one day make an interestingly long chapter in his autobiography; while the responsibility for the entire debacle, at the end of the day, is Marc’s and Marc’s only, I’m sure that eventually he will tell the tale of questionable, regrettable medical advice. In retrospect, Marc should have been stabilized and flown to someone like Dr. Art Ting or the like for treatment. Ting has successfully repaired numerous injuries like the one MM93 suffered and had motocross and Supercross riders back racing–again Supercross or Motocross–in 4-6-8 weeks.
On the upside, after 2020 the oft-repeated assessment of MM93 “the only thing that can stop Marquez is Marquez” is no longer just a quip, it’s now so real it can be chiseled into granite for the ages.
Marc’s absence from MotoGP commenced a very interesting period for the world championship. It went about how you’d expect races to play out without the most dominant rider of the modern era. Numerous new and different race winners, a new champion few picked to be a champion; MotoGP racing without Marc has been thrilling and exciting.
It’s also been kind of like walking down the aisle in the grocery store and encountering the multitude of different ways that one can make Hamburger Helper (24). I wish this not to be seen as a sign of disrespect but the unfortunate reality. I seriously doubt any analyst looked at the post-Jerez 2020 MotoGP results sheets and didn’t think to themselves, ‘Now, where would MM93 have finished in that race?’ and came away with a strong suspicion that a healthy Marc would have won a lot of those races.
2020 MotoGP was probably the championship we all needed in those bleak and semi-dire times. But now it is back to reality.
Welcome back, Marc.
