Iker Lecuona “was almost asleep in the chair” after first WorldSBK race in five months

Iker Lecuona has revealed the physical challenge of returning to WorldSBK action after five months with almost no riding.

The Honda World Superbike rider was injured at last year’s final WorldSBK round in Jerez, then again during training in January. He wasn’t able to participate in either of the two weather-affected European tests, and in Australia he crashed himself out of the weekend at Lukey Heights in Superpole with a fractured metacarpal in his left foot.

Returning to action one month later at the Portuguese Round in Portimao – having been forced to miss the Portimao test a couple of weeks before the race weekend – the Spanish rider had barely ridden since the Superpole Race at Jerez back in October.

“I need to say that after the Superpole Race, when the adrenaline dropped, I was done, I was on the chair in the box and was almost asleep in the chair,” Lecuona joked after Race 2 when speaking to WorldSBK.com.

“So, of course, after five months without riding any bike, it was not easy to manage [physically], but for this part also I’m even more happy.

“So, we can manage the physical condition, we can manage the job, we can manage everything – even the attitude when I’m inside the box I don’t care. So, really happy.”

Lecuona added that the Portuguese Round was the first time he’d been able to ride a bike without any pain since his crash at the Spanish Round last October.

“It’s the first time since October that I can ride the bike without any pain,” he said.

“We worked very hard during this winter, or these five months that I need to recover the body, to recover the mind – mentally I dropped a lot at the beginning, but I could manage the situation with family, the psychologist, friends. Everyone tried to help me to arrive to Portimao and to be ready to fight.

“I’m really happy also for myself because at the end on Friday I was [16th], but I didn’t care about my position, I looked more about my feeling, I looked at the job we did inside the box; and I’m really happy with the team, also.

“I say thanks to the team because they don’t put me under any pressure, it’s the opposite [because] they tried to stop me [coming back too soon], and this gave me an extra calmness to work with them.”

The results were also something for Lecuona to be pleased about, even an 11th in Race 1.

“We did a really good job [on Saturday] – 11th in Superpole,11th in the race – but still we had something to find on the bike,” he explained.

“This morning, in Warm Up, we found it, and honestly in the Superpole Race I didn’t expect that pace – ninth, with everyone on track, is really nice for me.

“Also, in Race 2, before the red flag I was [able to be sixth]. In the restart, okay, fight a little bit, I almost crashed a few times and I wanted to finish so I finished eighth but still it was a really good performance for me.

“After a lot of months, I’m really happy.”