The official rider for the Gas Gas Enduro Factory Team has suffered a double injury during a training session while preparing for the World Championship. A fractured fibula and damage to the ligaments of his knee are to force the French rider to go under the knife to cure the damage. He is to be out of competition for five or six months until fully recovered.
Gas Gas is sad to have to announce that Antoine Basset has been injured. The French rider, one of the mainstays of the official Gas Gas Enduro Factory team in the World Championship, had a fall some weeks ago during a training session. A heavy impact to his leg produced two injuries for the French rider who as well as fracturing his fibula has also damaged the ligaments in his knee. It is the injury to the ligaments which means the rider will have go under the knife as soon as swelling goes down enough to allow for surgery.
After the operation, the French rider’s medical team forecasts downtime of about six months, always depending on the speed of his recuperation. During this period away from top competition, the rider from Bersaçon will be alternating his physiotherapy sessions with publicity work for the brand in France, where Antoine Basset is one of the most well known personalities in the world of French enduro.
Antoine Basset’s injury, with less than a month to go before the start of the World Championship, is an unexpected major drawback for the Gas Gas Enduro Factory Team, which, for the moment at least, has lost its only rider in EnduroGP, the maximum category. This loss means that the brand from Salt will only be able to count on Jonathan Barragán for the first GP of the year, the Enduro GP of Finland held during the weekend of 25th and 26thMarch at Lake Paijanne. The Spanish rider is to race in the new Enduro2 category on his Gas Gas EC 250 R.