Yesterday I had the hardest fall I’ve taken so far. I was with Mike, Carl and Luke and was leading the pack scootin’ pretty quick down the hill on the Gary Fisher X-Caliber. The trail merged with another at the bottom and had a little drop so I tried to bunny hop the drop and I didn’t get my front wheel off the ground far enough so it was the wheel I landed on. For all you people out there that don’t know… this is not the way you want to land. Back wheel first… always back wheel first.

Anyway, I t-boned the front wheel and went over the handlebars. It happened so fast and hard that I heard the handlebars wrench as they twisted on the headset and I bent the front wheel out of alignment. The first thing that hit was my forearm on a rock, then my back and knee quickly followed.

It’s always funny the things that go through your mind when you take a hard fall. First off for any bike geek is the fear that their ride is broken. Next was jumbled thoughts like I must have broken my arm, I can’t work with a broken arm, suck it up… Marla Streb would just jump back on the bike, this will make a good picture for the website, etc etc.

Anyway, my bike is fine and besides some scratches and swelling, my body is still intact. And I did suck it up and finish out another hour or so of riding.