The longest Motocross World Championship on record reaches the halfway stage this weekend with the ninth round of the season to be held in France on the famous track of St Jean d’Angely.
After a short break the teams and riders have travelled to St Jean to be greeted by a new track layout - and a healthy amount on fans are expected to cheer home hero Mickael Pichon, who will have surgery after the event and so will be racing in his last GP of the season.
There has been a lot of speculation in the last two weeks about Pichon’s future ever since he pulled out of the second heat of the Italian Grand Prix in Castiglione del Lago.
After coming back from last position to seventh in the first race before falling, he was absent from the following moto and visited his doctor the following Monday. Still suffering from the knee damaged two years ago in Gaildorf, the former world champion received confirmation that another operation was now unavoidable.
"At first my idea was to have the operation as soon as possible, but the French GP is one of the most important races for me, my fans and my sponsors. As the doctor confirmed that competing one more event will not worsen the ligaments, I’ve decided to postpone the operation to next week. Sunday night I will go back home then I will have surgery with Doctor Barthelemy in Tours," explained Pichon.
Handicapped by the injury Pichon will not be at his best, but his rivals will be watching carefully as he is bound to go out with a bang. After surgery, his fifteenth operation, Mickael will take time to make any decision about his future.
Meanwhile, now leading the 2005 world championship with a strong advantage of 63 points over Joel Smets, Stefan Everts seems comfortably on the way to his ninth world title but is unlikely to back off from his pursuit of further GP wins.
