Top woman racer Nancy Van de Ven has broken her leg in two places while testing in Spain and has had surgery to pin it back together. The Dutch woman, who was second in the world championship in 2016 and fourth in 2017 just two points behind champ Kiara Fontanesi, faces a battle to be fit for the opening round of the series in Italy on April 8.

“Yesterday during the training in Spain I crashed and I had an open shin and fractured leg fracture,” she said. “I was operated on yesterday and a pin was used. I am going to do everything to make the first race as strong as possible.”