Mosig’s ‘break’ from races

By Marc McGowan
THE last place Kade Mosig expected to be on Monday morning was Glenferrie Private Hospital.
But that’s where the Pearcedale motorbike star found himself after breaking bones in his left hand in the opening round of the Australian Motocross Championship at Wodonga on the weekend.
Mosig, 19, faces up to eight weeks on the sidelines.
He qualified fifth and had moved into third place in race one behind eventual round winner and Motorex KTM Racing teammate Tye Simmonds and reigning champion Luke George when disaster struck.
Mosig clipped his left hand on a slightly out-of-place barrier and the injuries he sustained in the incident forced him to exit the race in just the fourth lap of 10.
He also sat out races two and three.
“The first race I was running third and coming through pretty good with my lap times,” Mosig said from his hospital bed this week.
“I had just made up some time on first and second place and then one of the barriers, where the mechanics’ area was, was sticking out a little bit and I clipped my hand on it as I was coming past.
“I’ve broken fingers and a few bones in my hand and my knuckles. I’m pretty bummed.”
Mosig was one of the top championship contenders heading into the eight-round season after finishing third in last year’s series.
But his injuries will see him miss round two in Canberra this month and he also faces a race against time to be fit for rounds three and four in Queensland in mid-to-late May.
“It’s definitely a bad start, considering I had a really good preparation and was feeling really good,” Mosig said. “My bike and my Motorex KTM team were working awesome.
“This makes it hard from a championship point of view, but I’m still going to try and finish the season strong with as many wins as I can get as soon as I’m back on the track.
“I knew I had the speed. We’ve got supercross, which starts in October, so my preparation and main focus will be on that.”
Mosig suffered a similar fate in the recent Australian Supercross Championship when he aggravated an old left shoulder injury in practice after round one.
“I had an operation on it at the end of 2007 and then one of the hooks they put in during the operation got pulled out when I was practising,” he said. “I did the first round and then did it when I was practising after the first round.”
Mosig was looking forward to a successful season after crossing from rival manufacturer Honda late last year.
“I just needed a fresh start. The Motorex KTM team is really organised and they have great bikes,” he said.
“I’d been with Honda for about five years, so I decided to go for the change.
“It’s got a really strong engine. They build them quite fast, even from a standard bike and then, obviously, we get the factory bikes and a lot of parts from Europe and that makes it pretty good.
“All my team are disappointed, but they just said they’ll work as hard as they can to get me back to 100 per cent and ready to go.”