Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Crashing...

If you ride MTB, it's just par for the course. Over the years, I've become quite adept at clearing prett much anything I come across. Today, however, the trail won. ..
I was riding down a steep section and came to a water bar (a hump built to direct water off the trail to prevent erosion). This water bar is made of fkagstones stuck in the ground on end. Thanks to the recnt rains, more of the rocks must have been sticking out of the ground; normally I shift my weight back and give the bars a little "oomph" and the front tire goes right over followed by the rear. Today? The fron tire stops immediately and I find myself tumbling over the handlebars and towards the ground. I land knees first and instinctively rolled to my right side, protecting my arms and face in the process and smacked the right side of my head HARD on the ground (it made that "BONK!" sound and I had a headache for a while). I sat there for a second to make sure nothing was broken and took my helmet off to make sure it wasn't cracked (I told you I hit hard). Luckily, the lid and bike are fine. I have some nice scrapes here and there, but nothing permanent or training-threatening (though swimming will STING tomorrow). The irony is that Stoltz commented on how he doesn't take as many risks as he used to after he broke his back, he says he'll walk stuff if the fall would be bad trying to ride it clean. I should've taken his advice more seriously.
Right Knee:
and the left knee:


Everything cleaned up nicely and the scrapes and much less severe than the pictures portray. I'm totally going back to ride that section clean, though...

E.

1 comment:

jameson said...

sweet wounds! I defintely fall into the category of trying not to take too many risks while training... when racing comes around that's whole different story... i guess that's why I have so many scars!

keep the rubber side down homey!