MARK DU PLESSIS IS FIGHTING FIT AND RARING TO GO

By Graham Potter | Saturday, April 30, 2022

Five weeks after resuming riding following surgery to his ankle, Mark Du Plessis is happy with the way the ankle is standing up to the rigours of race riding.

Any surgery is a surgery, so a good outcome is seldom fully guaranteed, but Du Plessis is happy to report the positive progress that he has been made over the last month.

“The ankle was very sensitive for probably the first thirty or forty rides,” acknowledged Du Plessis, “but that was expected. The surgeon said that was going to happen.
“Now it just feels a lot better.

‘They did a great job.”

Du Plessis has also been following a gym routine he started when he took that short break away from racing, and that activity is serving him well on a number of levels.

“I’m actually really enjoying it now,” said Du Plessis. “I think mentally is where it has really been a real godsend. It’s made me feel a lot better, not just riding race-day, but riding work … and it’s given me something else to do other than taking the day off and thinking I was still exercising by playing golf.

“At one stage I probably got too comfortable doing that,” was Du Plessis’s honest admission. “The gym has been very good for me. I didn’t think it would make as much difference as it has, as I said, not just physically, but mentally as well.

“I was struggling a bit when I left before surgery. Coming back, I was wondering how things were going to go for me … if I was going to get any support … but, instead of waiting for something to happen I elected to be proactive … hence the decision to go to the gym, for example.

“For a while there you are out of your comfort zone, but the last time I went to the gym I realised how much stronger I am compared to when I started.

“A very good friend of mine reminded me the other day that a change is as good as a holiday … and I’ve certainly benefitted from changing my routine.

“I’m pretty happy with the seven wins in April. I’d like to be going better. You always want to better yourself and that is what I have done my whole life.

“It’s not just a wages game. To me it is about winners. I want to get out there and I want to win every race I go around in.

“When that feeling disappears, then it’s time to give up.”

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