Vermeulen expecting to return at Assen
Added on Monday, April 19th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor
Vermeulen expecting to return at Assen
Chris Vermeulen is expecting to be back in action this weekend for the World Superbike round in Assen after missing the last four races through injury.
The Kawasaki rider has endured a nightmare start to his return to WSB, crashing out of the opening round in Australia, sustaining a knee injury that kept him out of the Portuguese round three weeks later before prompting him to undergo keyhole surgery two weeks ago, ruling out of the round in Valencia.
But the former MotoGP rider is up-beat for this weekend’s round, claiming that the surgery has been a success and that he fully expects to compete in the Netherlands.
“My knee is improving every day since I had keyhole surgery over a week ago and I have a good feeling in most of its range,” he claimed. “The difficult part now is getting enough bend but also strength and stability in my knee to race at Assen because I don’t want to turn up to just ride around. I am getting physiotherapy every day and it’s still a week until I need to be on the bike so I am optimistic that in that time it will have improved even more by then.
“I really enjoy racing at Assen and have had successful results there in both Superbikes and in MotoGP, I also get a lot of support there because of my Dutch heritage. I therefore hope that I can put on a good show and be fit enough to compete and join the team once again.”
Meanwhile, WSB promoter InFront Motor Sports has confirmed that the WSB round in Assen will go ahead as planned despite the severe disruptions in European air travel over the past week. The promoter claimed that with the teams already in Europe following the Valencia round, they anticipated no problems with teams and riders reaching Assen by road.
British fans looking to travel to Holland this weekend have however been warned that both P&O Ferries and Stena Line are reporting unusually high levels of traffic due to the air travel disruption.
