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rory skinner cev repsol valencia 2016 2 23

A hugely promising weekend in Valencia at the opening round of the 2016 FIM CEV Repsol’s Moto3 Junior World Championship ended with a broken wrist for Racing Steps Foundation backed Rory.

His pace and form across the entire weekend was very strong – and in the races themselves he showed himself to be both comfortable and feisty right up at the front of the pack.

Currently recovering and hoping for a return to the track at the end of this month, here Rory takes us through those positives from Valencia and his approach to getting back to 100{5a43dc3882c2f80676fbef8b5ee99bfa10c7f8dfb70fbf5aca9b0d3e05947ab5} and back into the championship fights for both the Junior World Championship and the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup…

First of all, how is the recovery coming along? When do you expect to be back on track?

My wrist is getting better everyday, I’ll miss the second round of Junior World Championship in Le Mans this weekend but aim to be back for the following round at Motorland, Aragon at the end of May.

What treatment have you been getting and how is the healing process maximised?

The treatment I have been getting is helping me lots – Racing Steps Foundation kindly flew me down to Ipswich to see a specialist where I received laser treatment and magnetic pulse therapy. I am also attending hyperbaric chamber sessions up here in Perth. All of these treatments are helping my wrist and I can really feel the benefit.

As it’s a blow to get an injury just getting started on the season, how do you stay focused and positive while you wait to come back?

It’s certainly frustrating to have broken my wrist at the first round of the season, but it’s made me even more motivated to come back fitter and stronger for the rest of the season.

Does an injury like this affect the way you approach your fitness and exercise regime while you’re healing?

Yes – It has a little bit but my focus has been mainly on turbo training, and soon I can concentrate on strengthening my wrist.

Despite the season-opener ending with the broken wrist, you nonetheless had great pace and form at Valencia throughout the entire weekend – this is encouraging for you?

Yes, I have liked Valencia since I first rode there at the start of last season, we have good race pace there.

Was it a combination of the bike’s own strengths plus speed and your comfort and confidence with the chassis and setup?

Certainly the track has a good mix of different corners so I think there is a point on the track where everybody’s bike has its strengths. The Racing Steps Foundation KRP FTR KTM does what I need it to do and that gives me confidence to push hard.

In both races, not only did you have the speed but your racecraft looked great. Were you really enjoying being up front?

Yes, definitely – the level of competition at the JWC is very high and during the races I really enjoyed riding at the front and being able to trust the riders I was around. My bike feels really good and Mark Keen and my team at KRP have done a great job of setting it up for me.

Just before the opening round of CEV you had the Rookies testing – How did that go? Does that give you confidence ahead of your comeback?

Yes, the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup tests went really well for me, we were able to find a base setting quickly so hopefully that should help us throughout this year to be fast. Although I missed the first round at Jerez, having a successful test has made me confident that when I return I hopefully will be able to run at the front.