MotoGP: No, Marc Marquez’s career isn’t ‘finished’ after three races

Marc Marquez should not be written off after just three races.

The internet is a beautiful thing, it gives us the chance to see, read and explore things we never could’ve imagined. I have personally spent thousands of hours reading into MotoGP trivia and more on social media and the internet learning something new every day, even without trying. Did you know that a whopping 97 riders raced the 1969 Isle of Man TT race which was on the Grand Prix calendar? To no surprise, this was won by Giacomo Agostini.

There is a part of the internet that is also quite dark, social media. Social media is a place where anyone with an internet connection can log into and post their opinions for all to see, even if said opinions are completely incorrect and unjustified.

Now we all know the story of Marc Marquez and his injury and return, I don’t need to explain this again for the twentieth time. Since he returned at Portimao the eight-time World Champion has completed three races and has finished in the top 10 for two of them and even lead the French Grand Prix for a number of laps.

The issue is that many expected Marc Marquez to return to MotoGP after his career was nearly ended due to his catastrophic injury and be straight back to the top step of the podium despite having clear muscle loss. Now anyone who knows anything knows that this would be very nearly impossible to achieve, even for the great Marc Marquez who hadn’t ridden his Honda RC213V in 9 months.

Marquez suffered multiple crashes in a difficult Le Mans. 

These people who have expected Marquez to be good instantly are now taking to social media to laugh, to mock and berate the eight-time champion for crashing twice in Le Mans despite leading the race with the rider confirming his second crash was due to a lapse of concentration as he was thinking about his race strategy and pitting for slick tyres now that the track was drying. I gotta ask, how on earth can you mock someone for crashing after leading their third race after nearly a year off?

It’s incredibly reminiscent of the past when we saw Jorge Lorenzo struggle at Ducati, Lorenzo didn’t instantly adapt to the Desmosedici and because of this was the recipient of a lot of abuse and hate from armchair racers and their keyboards hidden behind display pictures of their favourite riders, then as soon as the five-time champion started winning they all disappeared again back under their rocks, quiet as can be as they realised their trolling had bitten them and it bit them hard, Lorenzo was back on the top step and there was nothing they could do aside from bringing up old drama.

These people would eventually crawl out from under their rock when Lorenzo moved to Honda and struggled tremendously on the vicious machine which spat him off at Assen and very nearly paralysed the man, suddenly he was ‘weak’, ‘past it’, a ‘washed up rider’ and so on, they latch onto anything they can and cling for dear life to make themselves feel better about themselves.

We are seeing the same situation arise again with Marc Marquez as we have mentioned, after three races he has not won a race or stood on the podium prompting these trolls to spew the venom in their words into every comment section they can find telling everybody that Marquez will never be the same again and once again sounding like a broken record whining on about him being ‘past it’ and that he should retire.

Marquez battling the weather conditions of Le Mans. 

I am here to confirm that no, Marc Marquez is absolutely not past it after just three races and may take a full season to be completely fit and ready again the same way Mick Doohan did after he nearly lost his leg in 1992. Doohan returned a changed man in 1993 and needed a full season to get back into the swing of things before taking 5 consecutive titles before his career would come to an abrupt end when he damaged his leg once again.

We are more than likely about to see history repeat itself again with Marc Marquez getting fitter and stronger round by round, confirming that his muscle strength is currently at around 50% with his damaged bone being as strong as his other arm meaning it is at 100%. Marquez has returned to the gym lifting heavy weights after taking it fairly easy and not pushing himself too hard in-between races, the rider confirming that he was incredibly weak in his first week back.

Our bodies are incredible things and Marquez will be able to bounce back quite quickly thanks to ‘muscle memory’ which is described as ‘the thing that helps you regain your strength and muscle mass faster than when you first tried to grow them. It’s what makes it easier for you to relearn old skills that you may have stopped, like bodybuilding, lifting weights and building strength and size, even after weeks/months of inactivity.’ This assistance of muscle memory means it will not take long for the muscle to go back to how it was previously once he can start to push himself as hard as he can.

Don’t doubt or write off Marc Marquez because he will make you look incredibly silly over these next few months.

Source – Muscle memory

Featured images – HRC/MotoGP