After his spectacular comeback at the IDM season opener at the Sachsenring, Jan Mohr has to take another break. The 26-year-old Austrian crashed while riding his BMW M 1000 RR during team practice in Oschersleben and fractured his left shoulder blade.
That wasn’t how Jan Mohr had imagined it. After his serious accident at the Schleizer Dreieck two years ago—in which he fractured one vertebra, cracked two others, and shattered his left ankle—he was finally back in top form for a new IDM Superbike season with Team Champion Alpha Van Zon BMW. “I deliberately took my time with my recovery because I wanted to pick up right where I left off,” he reveals. Two top-ten finishes at the season opener on the first weekend in May immediately propelled him to seventh place in the overall standings, right behind his teammate Ilya Mikhalchik, the three-time champion.
That’s how it should have continued. But during the team’s test session in Oschersleben right before the Pentecost weekend, Mohr crashed in the third session. Instead of chasing lap times, he was subsequently sedated at the hospital. “It wasn’t anything serious. I braked too hard and went off into the grass. But then, all of a sudden, my front wheel was yanked out from under me. Either there was a hole or some other bump—I don’t know,” reports the curly-haired rider from Hohenems, continuing: “Getting back up didn’t feel good at all. My shoulder and hip hurt like crazy. At the hospital, they determined that I’d broken my left shoulder blade.”
Mohr had to spend one more night in the Magdeburg Börde region, then his teammate Philipp Steinmayr gave him a ride on his way home all the way to Regensburg, where a friend picked Mohr up and took him home yesterday.
There’s no definitive answer as to how long it will take for the shoulder blade to heal. “Ilya had the same injury at age 15 after a motocross accident, and Rob Hartog had it last year. I’ve spoken with both of them. I don’t think I’ll get away with it in less than two months,” Mohr believes, adding, “Rob went for a test ride after eight weeks and actually re-fractured it—without even crashing.”
Mohr has already sent his medical records to his doctor in Linz, who is also treating him for his back problems. “I think he’ll take a look at them on Tuesday. After Pentecost, I can call my physical therapist right away and tell him that I’ll be coming back to see him regularly.”
