Black reveals injury fear ahead of starting EWC opener

Gregg Black used his post-24 Heures Motos celebrations to reveal fears that he might not be able to take the standing start of the 2022 FIM Endurance World Championship opener. EWC races begin with a traditional ‘Le Mans-style’ start, with riders lining up on one side of the track and sprinting across to the other as quickly as possible to jump onto their waiting bikes before charging off towards the first corner.

Ad/> Black, whose sprinting prowess is widely regarded, broke his heel during a crash in the official Pre-Test last month and underwent a period of intensive rest and recovery to be fit to form part of the event-winning Yoshimura SERT Motul squad. FIM EWCWhen EWC history didn’t repeat for Aviobike17 HOURS AGO Yet despite his recovery bid, the 33-year-old wasn’t sure if he would be fit enough to perform starting duties.

“There was a doubt about riding at the start,” Black said. “I had quite a big crash in the test and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to run, but I had 10 days to get back and feel good.

A lot of people are waiting for me at the start and the start was not as fast as I could do but I was pretty lucky because it was a break on the side of the heel. It was a bit of a tough race with a bit of pain, but the head decides things more than anything.” British-born Black shared the EWC race-winning Suzuki GSX-R1000R with Belgium’s Xavier Siméon and Sylvain Guintoli from France with the trio repeating its 2021 Le Mans victory “It was much harder than last year, the other teams were really, really strong and we had to keep pushing for 24 hours so the stints were intense, fast and the pace was absolutely incredible,” Black said.