The end of the Empire. Maybe.

The 2026 MotoGP World Championship has changed, probably decisively, at 15:21 today, Saturday, May 9, when there was one lap to go in the Le Mans Sprint. A cloud of dust and gravel, a disintegrated bike, a red figure crouched, suffering, aware that something is seriously wrong. Marc Marquez’s race for a tenth world title this season is probably over like this, and who knows if #93 will ever have another attempt.

Read more The background: Marquez should have already undergone shoulder surgery after Barcelona

Today’s accident, which caused the reigning world champion a fracture of the fifth metatarsal of the right foot, has a different flavor from the terribly famous Jerez 2020: back then the Spaniard was at the peak of his sporting power. His injury was very serious and his screams immediately made it clear to the world, but that Marquez was a kind of superhero and seemed indestructible. No one understood right away, even at the moment of his failed attempt to return to the track the following week, how long his suffering would be. This Marquez, risen from the ashes, operated on and fixed, who last year gave himself and all fans a memorable season, is much more human and fragile.

The Mandalika injury, as a fresh nine-time world champion, which forced him to end the 2025 season early, was unfortunately only a preview of this year’s troubles. Many crashes, many difficulties, the surprising and strange feeling of slowly seeing the strongest and most winning rider of the last 20 years of motorcycling slip away from the World Championship race, but also that constant second thought, which gripped even the rivals: he is Marc Marquez, you can never stop considering him a favorite.

Today all those difficulties found an explanation and he revealed it himself: a screw in his right shoulder has ‘twisted’ and touches the radial nerve, slowly ‘turning off’ the arm of the Cervera phenomenon, who progressively loses strength and with it his ability to ride the bike and create magic. No French GP and no Catalan GP then: he has to stop, undergo a double operation and see how and when to return. Maybe at Mugello. Or maybe later. The unbeatable superman, already resurrected once in sport, is now down again and this time it really seems like the end of an era. The collapse of the ‘old regime’, something they know well in France.

Read more Acosta: “With a good start I could have been on the podium. Championship? We must not think about it”

Now perhaps, with Marquez losing more points in the standings and unlikely to be at his best when he returns to the saddle, the race for his legacy definitively opens. The derby in Noale between Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin could ignite: for both – although for very different reasons – climbing or returning to the World throne would represent the peak of a movie-like story. There is Pedro Acosta, the designated heir, who however cannot alone – despite his immense talent – make up for KTM’s many shortcomings. And then there are the Ducati riders. Among all, it is useless to deny it, eyes now more than ever are especially on Francesco Bagnaia: coming off a splendid start to the French weekend, with pole and second place in the Sprint, the Chivasso rider goes in just one afternoon from outcast to the only beacon of the factory team.

Finally, it remains to be seen if and how today’s accident will change the long-term future of the Borgo Panigale factory. Acosta’s arrival in red is certain, but now what will happen with Marquez? Already at the beginning of this year the Cervera champion admitted to having made some serious reflections on the possibility of hanging up his helmet. Now that his body has been severely hit again, it is impossible to know what will go through his mind.

The ‘tenth’ is a dream, not an obsession. Stopping at the end of the year is a possibility, not a certainty. The empire of #93 seems fallen, perhaps this time definitively. The restoration, the umpteenth, seems very difficult. Or maybe not. Maybe that second thought is still in his head: only Marc Marquez could rise again one more time. The umpteenth.

Read more Alex Marquez: “I complicated my life by myself with the crash in Q2”