PROGRAMMING NOTE: The AMA Motocross race from Thunder Valley will air LIVE on SPEED tonight at 11:00pm ET.

The big story of the Colorado National, Round 5 of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championships, is the return from injury of Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Mike Alessi, who suffered a broken left patella the Monday after his dominant performance in Texas two races ago. He broke it while practicing at the next round’s track, High Point Raceway in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania.

After having surgery to put his kneecap back together, Alessi returned to action in practice today in Colorado, only 19 days after sustaining his injury. Despite missing the High Point round, he’s just 19 points out of the points lead behind teammate Chad Reed. Alessi believes if he didn’t make it for this round, he would have no chance at the championship at all.

He limped noticeably before practice and, as he sat on his bike on the starting line awaiting his first practice of the day, he put all of his weight on his right leg instead of the left one he has injured. Actually, he wouldn’t even put the left foot on the ground.

So far Alessi has been in noticeable pain and has failed to put in times representative of his healthy speed. At the end of two rounds of practice, Alessi sits 28th on the list of times, which gives him the 28th gate pick in both motos. He’s a little over six seconds per lap slower than the fastest qualifier in the 450cc class, Josh Grant, who has a 2:14.140.