MotoGP - Thumb injury! MotoGP rider Aleix Espargaro has to abandon his racing debut

How bitter! While the MotoGP stars are out at the Sachsenring this weekend, Aleix Espargaro, who retired from regular racing over the winter, recently made his debut as a professional cyclist at the 'Tour of Austria'. The tour is scheduled to run from Wednesday (July 9) to Sunday (July 13) over a total of five stages, but for the Honda test rider, it ended on Friday.

As the Lidl Trek team announced on its social media platforms Instagram and X on Friday afternoon, Espargaro had to withdraw from the third stage of the 2025 Tour of Austria as a result of "a minor fall." The long-time Aprilia regular is suspected of having a fracture in his right hand.

Espargaro himself posted a picture of both his hands in his Instagram story. It was already visible to the naked eye that his right hand was significantly swollen around the thumb. The 35-year-old from Granollers captioned the post with a laughing smiley and a figure punching himself in the face: "The finger isn't that swollen from yesterday's fall."

The ultimately fatal bike crash occurred on Thursday during the second, rainy stage, which Espargaro finished in a respectable 70th place, one minute and 23 seconds behind the leader. On Friday evening, he confirmed his final exit from the Tour of Austria in a short video, also on Instagram.

"I'm very sorry to have to withdraw. I obviously broke something; my finger is twice its size. I tried again this morning, but I couldn't brake and was in a lot of pain, so I had to give up," Espargaro explained. "I hope to be back soon and wish the team much success [for the rest of the Tour, ed.]."