Not a very good day on the bike really. It was meant to be a relaxed reintroduction to mountainbike racing after ages off the sport but it turned out to be 20 minutes racing then a trip to Fairfield hospital via Mountain Rescue Land Rover and an ambulance.
Complicated feelings just now and I need to go back tomorrow to find out if the broken collarbone needs to be pinned. The tear to my ear was only mildly painful but bled like hell – my face was well dowsed with blood.
Crash itself was a riding error on my part – not a big one but in a place on the course that meant going down hard was inevitable.
The race, up to then, at Lee Quarry – was going pretty well, and that rocky course was fun at high speed. Four what it’s worth…!
Three gruesome snaps here on Flickr
UPDATE: a sequence of the nasty event now from www.equestrian-sports-photography.co.uk here (see link from Twinkly Dave’s comment below)