At the Brands Hatch round of the rescheduled Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Cal Crutchlow amazed the crowd by coming third in race one and then winning the second race.
Only six days earlier Cal had crashed out in race two at Oulton Park bringing out the red flags for the injured rider. He had badly dislocated his right ankle and ruptured the ligaments. Out of the three ligaments holding his foot to his ankle, Cal had ruptured the front two so that only the back ligament was holding his foot in place. Not so great when you’re riding a motorcycle for which you need your right foot to press down on a lever and work the back brake. The pain he felt was obvious to all who saw him just getting onto his machine, but he insisted on racing.
Cal had been helped by the top physio from Coventry City football Club, who had advised him to swap around with therapies. On the Monday, Cal had another crash and so on the Tuesday the cast around his injury was cut. The swollen area, which was all around the outside of the right ankle was then pricked about 20 times with a needle to release the blood. He was then having to immerse his foot in ice water to get the swelling down so that he could get his race boot on.
After going through all that and then to take his place twice on the podium, that’s what I’d call a dedicated racer.
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