Crashing – All part of mountain biking
As you recall on Father’s Day weekend, I took my friend Val Macatangay for a ride at our local trail – Coal Canyon.
Since then, he’s been frequenting this trail. Almost on a daily basis, Val hits the trail at 6 am – rides from his house and climbs a little further than the last. Little by little, he is getting better. He recently told me that he is getting acclimated to what the trail has to offer. He enjoys the workout of the climb and looks forward to the reward of the descent…
Several days ago, Val headed up Coal Canyon. On his way back down, he was going pretty fast. On a fireroad descent, you can easily let things fly. As he neared the bottom, he overshot a left-hand turn. Panicked, unable to unclip and the fear of going over the side – he laid his bike down. He stopped his momentum with the left side of his body, including his face…OUCH! Unable to ride his bike all the way back to his house, Val had his wife pick him up at the trail head.
The Damage:
- Road rash – left cheek (face not the backside J)
- Road rash – left leg
- Tweaked rear wheel
Crashes are common for both beginners and experience riders in our sport. For Val, he did not let this crash deter him. He was back at Coal Canyon two days after grinding up the mountain and bombing back down. Way to go Val!
Great post. You have to get back on the horse and ride the scene of the crime.
The only thing better is the ability to laugh at yourself because they caught the crash on video!
http://www.mtbtrailreview.com/blog/about/
Ouch!
nice job getting back out there.
Glad it wasn’t any worse. I think it’s great you hit the trails every morning.
Lately, I have been thinking about the value of a full face helmet for XC riding. Seeing the road rash on your face gives me another reason to think it might not be a bad idea.
It’s not IF you crash, it’s WHEN you crash (and how bad).
Sweet — facial road rash (or “trail rash”, in this case) is a real sign of being hardcore. It’s pretty tough to scrape your face where Val did. Ride on, man — you’ve caught the bug for sure!!!
On another positive note: now you have a new profile picture for Friendster…
Get that boy some bigger tires!
On my first big crash, I came unclipped while hopping over a log and down a couple feet at the edge of the park’s parking lot. When I got up, I realized nobody had even seen my awesome slam and was pretty disappointed. I’m sure I looked completely retarded flying over the end of my bike.
Is the bike OK?