Lowes’ wrist woes - ‘I feel better, the squeaking’s stopped’

A unexpectedly difficult Moto2 preseason saw Sam Lowes dealing with tendonitis in his left wrist as the Elf Marc VDS rider sat out of Portimao testing.

As the days count down to Qatar’s opening race of the 2022 season Bikesportnews.com caught up with the Brit to find out how the recovery was going.

“It’s something a bit strange,” Lowes explained from Italy as he prepared to leave for the opening race of the year. “Alex has actually suffered a little bit in the past. It’s just tendonitis.

“We did the first test, I did a bit of training, maybe a bit less riding than I normally would because the season’s a bit earlier but then went straight to Valencia for the Moto2 test, everything was good. I did quite a lot of laps, there’s a lot of left corners in Valencia and on the second day my shoulder and arm was feeling a bit tired but is normal after the winter. I didn’t really think anything of it.

“Then the day after I had some strange pain in my wrist, it was real difficult to move and was making like a squeaking sound.

“I called Alex because I know that he’s had issues with it and he said ‘Honestly bro, no idea where it comes from but it just starts up’. The problem is basically the tendon got a bit inflamed but then obviously as you keep using it, the inflammation doesn’t go down because you’re using it. So it was quite painful, a little bit weak really, that’s the main problem it’s not that strong. Then Jerez, the first day I did quite a lot of laps, didn’t feel too bad honestly. Felt really good on the bike, a little bit of pain but nothing to really mention. Just a bit sore, no worries but I got up the next day and I felt like someone had been hitting it with a hammer all night so it was quite painful. Didn’t ride really