an overall 5th placing in MX2, sitting just
outside the top 5 with 6th overall.
There is, however, a silver lining to
Groombridge bowing out of the 2019
competition season early as he explained to
Kiwi Rider.
“It’s not too bad, really,” Groombridge said.
“I was racing in MX1 and Nick Saunders
crashing in front of me and had one
handlebar in the ground and the other
straight up. When I hit him I think I must’ve
just squashed my finger between his
handlebar and my grip and squashed it so
much it tore the end of my finger off.”
“I got going again and thought, **** that’s
quite sore, and five or six laps later I had
another fall and I was, like, I’ll do away with
this race and get my finger strapped up and
ride the rest of the day. When I was in the
ambulance they started cutting my glove
and as they drew my glove off the end of my
finger went out with it.”
Despite his pleading with the medics to
allow him to continue the day’s racing, he
was sent on his way to have his injured
finger assessed properly.
“I don’t think I’ll make it to the next
Cross Country in 2-weeks time, he says.
It’s probably too much of an injury and I’d
probably be asking too much.”
“I’m getting it looked again in a week and
they [the doctors] say this sort of thing
heals pretty quickly but who knows how
long that really is, it could be a month or
two months, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
However, Groombridge’s title defence in
Cross Country and Enduro was already on
shaky ground this year with the need to go
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under the knife to correct a long-standing
injury that has been holding him back for a
decade.
“I was going to have shoulder surgery in
May anyway which pretty much had me
out of the running this season, but maybe
because of this injury I might be able to
get on some sort of list and get that done
earlier, he says optimistically.
“At this stage, if I can be back on the bikes
again in six months I’ll be happy, he says.
“That’s just our sport sometimes, you take
the good with the bad.”