ESC Enduro at Blue Mountain, PA

It was bound to happen sooner or later, I crashed while riding my bike. Unfortunately it was the very first stage of a 5 stage enduro that I was racing in at Blue Mountain in Palmerton, PA. I had ridden this stage a number of times the week before and was very comfortable with the terrain but on race day I let the pressure of throwing down a fast race run get the better of me.
Luckily my shop sponsor, Rob from Community Bikes and Boards was right there to capture the event, video below.

As I was coming through the beginning of stage 1 I wound up clipping my left pedal on a rock that was embedded in the trail, you can clearly hear it in the video. I really didn’t need to put in a pedal stroke at this point but I felt compelled to. Had I coasted for a second out of the turn prior to striking the rock I would have wound up having a fun day of racing. Lesson learned.

After I got up, Rob jumped into action and helped me make my way off of the mountain. He also made sure that I had my injuries looked at by the medical staff who sent me to the local ER, I can’t thank him enough! I also am fortunate to have friends far and wide. My friend Dave Leventhal was racing that day and made himself available to get my car to me after I was done in the ER.

separation x-ray

I wound up with a separated AC joint, sore ribs and some scratches up and down my back. It appears that I will most likely be off of the bike until sometime later this summer. I think it will be sooner and I attribute this to my overall fitness level at the time of the accident. My coach, Jonny G, has kept me on track with some intense workouts since winter and I was finally at a place where the hard work was going to pay off. His training routine will certainly help me recover more quickly. If you are looking for a coach to help with any kind of mountain bike training, give Jonny G a shout!

What’s next?

So I’ll start physical therapy next week and take it one day at a time.

I’m really bummed that I’ll miss the USAC Super D Nationals this year but these things happen in mountain bike racing. With this major setback in my schedule I’ll turn my sights on the Fall enduro races.
I now fully understand how mountain bike friends (Ed, Elinor, Kyle, Karen) feel after an injury has them sidelined, it’s hard to sit on the sidelines. More importantly, I’m also getting a sense for how my wife feels when one of her favorite activities is taken away from her due to her ongoing cancer treatment or a side effect of it. It really makes me appreciate everything.

In the meantime I’ll be tortured by the endless supply of images on social media of friends out riding their bikes.

Risks

As any mountain bike enduro racer will tell you, we all take risks when we head out on a course. We know and understand the risks but also understand that we’ve been doing this for years and those risks become less likely with the increase in rider skill level. In my case a split second decision led to a split second crash. At least I gained a pretty cool looking race kit out of the ordeal.
Made the drive home!

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