Racers back for Germany

The German GP at the Sachsenring on July 16 will see a number of riders returning after recovering from injury.

Foremost among them will be Sete Gibernau, who missed the Dutch and British GPs due to a broken left collarbone. Team-mate Loris Capriossi was also injured in the same turn-one incident at Catalunya, but was able to ride for the last two races, and should be 80-90 per cent fit for the German round.

"The problem is that the injury is internal, so it’s impossible to work on it effectivelty and it doesn’t respond to pain-killing therapies," said Capirossi. "I’m looking forward to being able to ride properly again."

Gibernau is realistuic about the challenge of returning from injury. "It won’t be the most comfortable circuit to ride with a collarbone injury. It’s physically demanding because it;s tight and slow. Anyway, i like the circuit and it holds good memories because I won there in 2003 and got second last year after a great race. I hope my shoulder won’t be too much of a problem."

Toni Elias is also likely to return for the Fortuna Honda team, following a shoulder injury picked up during the free practice for the Assen round. Marco Melandri and Valentino Rossi will also be in better shape after the short break between the British and German races.

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In the 250cc race Dirk Heidolf will return for the first time since June, and Martin Cardenas could return following a fractured collarbone. The Malaguti Ajo Corse 125 GP squad will have both riders back after injury. Tomoyoshi Koyama has also confirmed he will race, after missing three races with a fractured wrist, while Masbou sat out the British GP after a number of crashes left him heavily bruised.