Colin Edwards: "Vale and I couldn't have avoided Marco "

Colin Edwards won’t be at Valencia for the final MotoGP race of the season and his last race with Yamaha Tech3 as he underwent successful surgery yesterday to fix the multiple fractures he sustained in the Sepang crash in which Marco Simoncelli lost his life.

In an interview with Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport, the highly popular American rider talked about how sorry that he can’t be at Valencia (Josh Hayes will be taking his place ) and how being involved in Marco Simoncelli’s death affected him.

“The last few days have been tough, especially the first 24 hours after the accident when I asked myself a thousand questions: could have done something different? Back home I saw the video of the incident and I quickly found the answer: No, I couldn’t have done absolutely anything to avoid Marco and like me neither could have Valentino.

It’s hard losing a friend, but I think I’d feel the same pain even if I had not been directly involved in the accident.
” said Edwards.
Yet the Texas Tornado briefly thought about quitting, “I thought about it for a day, until I saw the images, and that was the end of it.

We’ve lost a bright star, Marco was loved by fans for his personality, his character, his charisma.
People love to watch our races, but it’s not only for that, but it’s also what we can transmit and Marco was a personality and there aren’t many in MotoGP and I’m sure some will disagree with this.
I really liked the way he related to the fans.
“Edwards will be riding a CRT machine for NGM Forward Racing in 2012.