CHRIS Holder will try and ride through the pain barrier in Croatia today to try and keep his Grand Prix dream alive.

The Pirates star, who has only completed less than three competitive laps since breaking his collarbone on May 27, lines up at Gorican in GP qualifier round five.

Holder has to finish in the top six to progress to the semi-finals in Sweden and Latvia where he would join fellow Poole Castle Cover rider Bjarne Pedersen in action on July 4.

Speaking yesterday, the Aussie said: “I was going to do a couple of laps at Poole on Thursday after the Buccaneers match but just thought if I can leave it as long as I can to get back on a bike that would be the best route.

“I’ve got practice in Croatia on Saturday morning, so I didn’t want to do anything stupid on Thursday night and not be confident going into Saturday.

“The collarbone hadn’t healed enough when I rode against Lakeside last week. It wasn’t 100 per cent. I was still in too much pain, and I wouldn’t do that again.

“When you break something like this, it upsets all the tendons and all the rest of the stuff around it.

“I still have a bit of pain, but it’s not bothering me too much. If I can get some good painkillers, hopefully I’ll be fine when I ride on Saturday.

“I’ve had physio every second day since a week ago Wednesday and I’ve rested it in between.”

Pirates fans can watch the Gorican meeting live via a stream on the internet at crostream.net GP qualifier round five line-up: 1 D Ruud, 2 J Kolodziej, 3 C Holder, 4 M Vlah, 5 L Richardson, 6 S Vlasov, 7 K Kasprzak, 8 M Ferjan, 9 A Karpov, 10 P Swiderski, 11 J Pavlic, 12 M Zagar, 13 N Magosi, 14 J Davidsson, 15 L Bridger, 16 A Rymel. Reserves: 17 R Cvetko, 18 N Pigac.