BSB: Iddon: 'I could feel the bone moving as I rode'

Christian Iddon went above and beyond in his quest to secure a spot in the Bennetts BSB title fighters’ Showdown at Silverstone this weekend. 

Things had been looking good for the Tyco BMW rider, but a highside in qualifying looked set to end his weekend with a collarbone broken in three places. 

However, determined to ride, Iddon insisted medics let him take a fit-to-ride test that involved doing one-handed press-ups on the side of the broken bone. Passed fit, he rolled to the grid an hour later and finished the weekend’s races in 15^th, fifth and tenth.

“We tried everything… I felt quite comfortable which is one of the biggest shames of it, I was actually thinking about winning the race at one point as I could see Hickman was struggling so I knew what I needed to do,” Iddon told MCN after the race.

“I did my best but made a mistake… I ran deep and I knew I couldn’t afford to fall off on my collarbone so I ran off the track just to be safe.” 

Despite his heroic performance, Iddon said he did what any other racer would do with a Showdown position on the cards.

“There was a lot at stake, I’m sure everyone else would have tried to ride… The collarbone wasn’t too much of a problem in the races, the main thing was I just couldn’t get fully tucked in down the back straight which is a shame as the bike has been really quick all weekend. It wasn’t too bad, I learnt to ride with it and it got easier and easier. I could feel it, I could feel the bone moving, it was sort of crunching across itself… that’s more disconcerting than anything else!

“It left me a little bit weak in the braking areas, obviously not weak enough to be not riding as I was competitive. It was only on the left-hand side too, I was strong into turn one but weak into Brooklands.”

However, while he rode at Silverstone Iddon is now likely to miss this weekend’s Oulton Park round. Having met with a surgeon, they have decided the best route is to allow the bone to heal naturally rather than surgery. While the Derbyshire rider hasn’t 100% ruled out an appearance this weekend, it’s likely he’ll be out of action until Assen.