Article: Fell off my bike and vowed never to get back on

[Charlotte Berry]

I'm pretty risk averse and ride accordingly. I stopped mountain biking because of this (and the fact that I sucked at it). However, I have had a couple of crashes, while they didn't involve cars, they did involve moderate injuries. My first crash involved me passing a water bottle to my son as he rode by me on his cross bike (like in "hey Mom, give me a drink, I don't have a bottle"). When I went to take it back, I crashed, mostly because I had visions of crashing into a phone pole that was near. This was a few months after a well known woman racer had crashed into a pole and died in a race near here. I was a very new rider and that's all I could think of. While I finished my ride, I woke up a few days later with a knee the size of a balloon. It turned out to be just blood pooled up in there, I went through it being drained, MRI, and about 6 weeks of not being able to do anything except swimming. It hurt like hell. But, I never thought about quitting riding. Heck, I crashed down a ravine in Austria (no injuries) because of my klutziness, and I never thought of stopping.

I think you are talking about Nicole Reinhart. She is the only pro women road rider to be killed in a bike race in history I think. If I am wrong, correct me. What a tragedy indeed. The only man to be killed in a pro men's bike race I think was Fabio Casatelli. Tommy Simpson died from drugs, but not from a bike accident. I'm not sure though about the men totally, since I don't follow them, too manyh druggies in the sport for men, lost interest in it. lots of men died in bike racing while training or otherwise, but not during an actual pro bike race that I know of. Getting off track here, but the Reinhart accident sure was horrible because she was just yards away from winning the largest bike purse in women's cycling history.

However, my experience was different then others. I just didn't ride for a year. For me, it was a sign to give it a break and do something else. When I went back, all ok for me, time heals all things, sometimes!

[Crankin]

Yes, it was Nicole Reinhart. My crash happened about 3-4 months after her death. It seems like a really long time ago!

[NbyNW]

It's so hard to generalize how people will respond to an accident.

Barbara Buchan has an interesting story -- had a serious crash in the 80s before helmets were commonplace in competitive cycling, but it didn't seem to impair her competitive drive.

[marni]

I couldn't wait to get back on my bike after each of my biking accidents, once caused by being brushed by a car, once for running off the trail after hitting an unexpected bunch of wet leaves coming out of a curve, probably too fast. Of course, it took me more than a year to ride the trail I had ridden off , and then only because my dh/sag guy insisted. I rode very slowly and carefully and ti was in the middle of the summer so there were no leaves.

I am so hooked on the endorphines and sense of accomplishment and just self pride that I get from bike riding that I can't see ever giving it up or quitting easily or happily. They will probably have to drag ;my bicycle out of my dead clenched hands in order to bury me.

[jobob]

I'm still riding.

That said, perhaps if I had any memory of my crash, or the helicopter ambulance to the trauma center, or the two days in intensive care (well, OK, I have vague memories of that), or if I didn't heal up practically 100%, then maybe I'd feel differently.

[Eden]

Of course.... like my teammate who read the story, my first thought was not about whether on not she'd get back on, but what she was doing half wheeling....

I've crashed a few times, hit by a car once. I never thought twice about getting back on the bike. The car incident was right before my favorite race... I was back on my bike probably way sooner than I really should have... as soon as I could bend my knee (I think it was about 4 days later) again I was commuting and I went to the race a week after the accident