Bold statement: Casey Stoner wants to reclaim the simple joy of riding, not just compete, after health setbacks dimmed his 2025 season. And this is where the nuance gets interesting: recovery isn’t linear, and even someone with Stoner’s history can face unpredictable limits from chronic fatigue and related symptoms.
Casey Stoner hopes to ride motorcycles more in 2026, following a late-2025 health setback that kept him off the bike. The former MotoGP star, whose 2009 season included multiple race absences due to illness, has long been open about his chronic fatigue diagnosis, first disclosed in 2020. That condition can swing in severity, making symptoms inconsistent and hard to manage.
In an interview with Crash.net at the end of January, just before the Ride 6 video game release in which he stars, Stoner said he had been cycling and felt in good shape during 2025. However, after returning from a trip to Europe, he contracted a virus that derailed his health.
“Unfortunately, a few months ago, my health went backwards again, so I haven’t been spending any time on a bike,” he explained.
“Before that, I was cycling again and my fitness was—I was very happy with where I was at.
“Then, all of a sudden, I got back from Europe, caught a virus, and it sent me back into chronic fatigue.”
This led him to step back from riding, but he remains hopeful about turning things around in 2026 and enjoying bikes more once again.
Looking back, Stoner spent time in Italy late in 2024 at Valentino Rossi’s VR46 Motor Ranch and at a flat-track event during Milan’s EICMA show. He rode a two-stroke Beta there but battled carpal tunnel, a departure from his usual on-track rhythm.
“Riding the Beta at Vale’s ranch was good,” he recalled. “We were gradually increasing activity, but I was fighting carpal tunnel. I mistook it for arm pump and believed more riding would help, but it kept getting worse.
So, at Rossi’s ranch I couldn’t push beyond four or five corners before my arms pumped up to the point of losing grip.”
In 2025, he returned to riding and found arm pump to be manageable with more time on the bike, though blood flow and recovery posed new challenges. He noted that after years of consistent riding, a seven-to-eight-year pause meant his body needed time to rebuild arm strength and endurance.
“Returning in 2025, the arm pump was different but still present, and while the symptoms were more manageable, my body isn’t recovering as quickly due to the health issues. Blood flow in the arms is a particular hurdle,” he said. “I’ve basically stopped riding for so long that my arm strength needs to be rebuilt.”
Stoner’s background includes joining Crash.net’s team in August 2024, after two years covering motorcycle news for Visordown, where he built a reputation for insightful racing commentary and analysis.
