Protezioni

Another week, another crash on the mountain bike… Again, I landed on my hip taking the skin off. My forearm/elbow armor also slid up resulting in some pretty nasty road rash along my forearm too. Both of these injuries could have been prevented by:

1. Not going as fast

2. Getting my thrills from a video game instead of real life

3. Wearing some decent body armor

Naturally, I’m opting for option 3.
The race was at Bear Mountain, part of the BC Cup downhill series, and was my first ever Downhill Race. I had a couple good runs during practise, but on my last practise run of the day, I was really letting it rip and crashed twice. Once led to the “abrasion management kit” being pulled out, the second was a stumble down a steep bank which resulted in a bruised palm and thumb, and a bruised foot — I arrested my fall by grabbing a tree with my right arm while putting my left foot down slightly off-centre on a stump.

The good news is that I’ve decided both “injuries” were preventable. The arm and hip cuts & scratches resulted from a quick washout — something that happens from time to time and you can’t do a lot about it. Play the game, it happens, sort of thing. But I could be limiting the lasting effect of such slides simply by wearing the Dainese armor. It’s the suit pictured. So I’m going to finally pony up and drop the $400 on the suit Monday. The hand and foot bruising just shouldn’t have happened. I stalled and slowly went over the bars and essentially leaped down a cliff at a section I’d already had trouble with on each earlier run. Blasting through it slightly out of control versus playing it cautious might have saved me, at best, a second. Mountain bike racing and freeriding is all about risk management, and this was clearly a case of getting the risk assesment all wrong. There was no point in taking the risk, certainly not for the little gain there was to be had in return..

Live and learn. In racing, it’s worth it to take the time to study the course. Look at each section in detail, examine the lines, decide where it makes sense to take a higher risk line. The pressure of the clock, and the desire to just have fun instead of “getting too serious” did me in. A harsh way to learn, but the only way.