Comments on: Best. Crash. Ever.

By: Tyson

Tyson — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 20:46:22 +0000

Ah yes, the story of Mark(#2) brought back memories of some great times. Is there anything more hilarious than the onset of hypothermia? I think not!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 16:42:56 +0000

I think you should have left Mark dead on the trail as a warning for others.

Perhaps that would have been a bit harsh.

By: Tim D

Tim D — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 11:22:19 +0000

A bunch of us were out riding up in the Lakes. The guy at the front hit a really soft boggy patch that grabbed his front wheel and pitched him into the mud. The following three guys were so close behind that they had no choice but to ride over him. No lasting damage was done, but for the rest of the ride, whenever we came across a boggy bit, it was "Mark, can you throw yourself down there so we can get across."

My other favourite crash was a different Mark. It was a very cold day and all the ruts and puddle were coated with ice. We hit one particularly long stretch of ice and all came down with varying degrees of grace. Then Mark hit it, on a different line, cracked through the ice and was pitched into the puddle, having to break up through the ice to get out. He was frozen and soaking. We got him dry and managed to find some dry clothes for him to put on. As he was struggling to pull a jersey over his head, he stepped back off the trail and fell 6 or 7 feet into a stream. How we laughed. Fortunately we were fairly near the end of the ride and he was only slightly shivering uncontrolably by the time we got him to the cars.

Cheers

Tim

By: Unknown

Unknown — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 20:34:42 +0000

MTB features some pretty good crashes, but a lot of times, you land in the dirt, which is softer than car bumpers, steel lane dividers, and your buddy’s titanium-framed Litespeed. I’m not mocking MTB-ing here, just noting that if you can hit the tall grass and avoid the rocks & trees, the landing can be only mildly painful. But can you imagine what a similar road crash would be, if the lead rider ran the paceline into a pileup?

"Rick got up and was laughing really hard because Rocky’s ankle was at a 90 degre angle – sideways!- to the rest of his leg. Rick laughed, at least until he realized that his shoulder was separated and his collarbone was shattered, at which point he sat down in the fetal position, started crying and rocking himself and went into shock. Rocky laughed at Dug – well, it was sort of a groan – when Dug tried to stand up and his tibia – sticking downwards out of the skin – got stuck into the muddy ground at the bottom of the ditch like a tent peg. Ooooh, that’ll leave a mark. Al apparently swerved out of the paceline with his usually crummy line discipline and hit a car [had to write myself in somewhere] and the lucky bugger got away from the pileup with just a bruised knee, and his face left a dent in the hood. The ambulance driver beat him up pretty bad when he lipped off, but those injuries weren’t really crash-related. And as for me… well, this is all second hand. I had a really bad concussion and some road rash that totally wrecked a set of Etxe Ondos. I remember something about drinking the clear fluid that was running out of my ears… Oh, and they tell me that I beat up Dug with the bloody stump of my own arm for failing to call out the road hazard that made the whole group crash, and for wrecking my $5,000 bike. And we never did identify whose fingers got taken off by the aero spokes on Rick’s Mavic Ksyriums. Good times, man. Good times."

I think the rule is MTB crashes are generally pretty funny, although occasionally punctuated by horrifying injuries, while road crashes are generally horrifying and only occasionally punctuated by humor.

By: BIg Mike In Oz

BIg Mike In Oz — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 20:26:47 +0000

Hey, that looks like fun. Fellas, wait for… aagh, ooof.

Te he.

By: Zed

Zed — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 19:56:12 +0000

Did anyone pull the ‘three-try’ rule on that one?

By: Fatter Cyclist

Fatter Cyclist — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 19:50:28 +0000

Well ‘Fat Cyclist’ – I just came across your blog and must say congrats – it looks like you achieved your goal.

You’ll see that I loved your idea so much… I copied it with http://spaces.msn.com/fattercyclist/ .

I’m in much worse shape than when you started your goal. 215 – wanting to get down to 175/180.

A LOT of work ahead of me, but thanks for posting the inspiration.

All the best,

Fat(ter) Cyclist

By: Tom Stormcrowe

Tom Stormcrowe — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 19:31:20 +0000

In the Trucking Industry, we referred to this phenomenon as :The Silver Eagle Maneuver" after Silver Eagle Transportation out of Connecticut losing their ENTIRE fleet of 15 trucks in a single accident in NY on I 84. In heavy fog, they were all running to the same destination in convoy in Fishkill Summit and the lead truck went off the road and the rest followed his tail lights in the fog through the guard rail and down the side of the Mountain! No driver was killed, but I’d sure hate to explain to the insurance carrier just how I lost my entire fleet and 15 cargo’s in the same accident! They went out of business because they could no longer even get insurance!

By: Sue

Sue — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 17:53:16 +0000

I’ve never even heard of such a thing. Every rider crashing. It’s disgracefuLl. I’m SURE if I had been with you I wouldn’t have wrecked. MY LIVER! I THINK I’VE LACERATED MY LIVER!

Botched

By: Tyler

Tyler — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 17:50:03 +0000

I can just hear Phil Liggett exclaiming "And now Fatty’s down! What is happening? And another one! This is just outrageous, Paul…"

(Though I know it’s mountain biking and so not entirely appropriate,)