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Spectator Suffers Spectacular Crash Trying To Ride DH World Cup Course

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During the finals of the Cairns, Australia World Cup DH Race, Adam Brayton clipped a tree and took a big digger that resulted in a broken leg. While he was being treated, a spectator offered to take his bike back down to the pits. After pushing the bike partially down the mountain, the spectator decided to hop on the bike (despite having no helmet) and ride down the track. Hit play to watch the carnage and drop past the break for another angle. 

The event occurred during Steve Peats run, so the Syndicate rider was given a second run. He was only one of two riders to have raced at the venue 18 years ago, and was 7th fastest man down the treacherous track.

 

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Cory Benson
Admin
9 years ago

Ouch, but seriously what was he thinking! Sure rolling really slow down may have been a reasonable thing to do, but what do you expect cruising a pro DH course with no protective gear, and clearly not competent enough to clear the whoops. Not even the pros would do that.
I do hope this guy is Ok, though.

SamSkjord
9 years ago

What a silly sausage.

ginsu
ginsu
9 years ago

Darwin Award! makes the pros look good

MulletRacer
MulletRacer
9 years ago

DUUUUUDE

Cisco
9 years ago

I hope he is alright and all he is left with is – EXPERIENCE

sending good vibes!

Cisco

ononecog
ononecog
9 years ago

it looks like he had helmet, that blasted off his head and landed in the bottom of one of the whoops

Vince pearl
Vince pearl
9 years ago

Holy sh*t he got rocked. But d*mn don’t we all get hammered like that once in a blue moon? I remember getting knocked out cold many times riding bmx. Viva our sport!

guillaume
guillaume
9 years ago

Any update on him?pretty bad crash especially without any protection gear.rough day for him 🙁
stop calling him stupid please he is just young,
by the way,who would have the guts to do what he did ? not me

Cdub
Cdub
9 years ago

Very questionable choices, but more importantly, I hope he recovers well. Very unfortunate crash.

Ajax
Ajax
9 years ago

Why does the video stop there?. I want t see what happens next.

Lahrs
Lahrs
9 years ago

Cdub, agree completely!

Thinking about this more today, I wonder if the brakes are back to front to what he was used to? Being an Aussie living in Canada, I have to warn people if they borrow my bike that the front brake is probably the opposite to what they are used to.

Just a thought, regardless, hope he doesn’t suffer any long term issues from accident.

zohurap
zohurap
9 years ago

Hold my beer, I’ma take care of that bike.

Mud Cycles
9 years ago

Steve Peat tweeted earlier that he spoke to the guy (probably to thank him for the 2nd run lifeline) and the guy has cracked 2 vertebra.
Painful lesson for that punter!
There’s a reason why the pros wear all that protective gear.

iwilki
iwilki
9 years ago

First Brayton goes down, then this guy packs it. Problem here seems to be a faulty bike…

notapro
notapro
9 years ago

It was brayton’s bike so the brakes were probably moto. It’s cool peaty got a rerun but not cool on minaa’s dq

Jimmie
Jimmie
9 years ago

Letting a spectator onto the course is the most bone headed thing to allow and the results are there to prove it. He had zero business being allowed onto the course during an active race. In this day and age, the race organizers may find themselves held accountable for letting this dumb dumb hurt himself.

Ilikeicedtea
Ilikeicedtea
9 years ago

@Ajax

What happens next is that Steve Peat almost ran over his carcass. He got a restart because of it.

jyo-jo
jyo-jo
9 years ago

Dang. Hope recovery is quick. Flex-fit’s aren’t the best choice for head protection… Just sayin’

ginsu
ginsu
9 years ago

@Jimmie – I don’t think they really ‘let’ him go out there, he just took it upon himself to grab the bike and go. What would you have them do? Lock down the course and call out ‘We gotta an active idiot out on the course, take him down immediately without hesitation!’

It’s not exactly easy to communicate with somebody riding down a trail at the same time.

Jimmie
Jimmie
9 years ago

@ginsu. That’s exactly the job of course marshals. Do fans have a go at bat in the middle of a baseball game? Do fans take over when their favorite quarterback gets hurt? Try getting into the seat of a Nascar next time there is a crash. Every sport, including cycling has safety protocols in place to protect spectators and the athletes. If this guy had caused Steve Peat a crash that resulted in a career ending injury, the comments here would be a lot worse. All I can say is the guy is stupid and got what was coming to him.

Keith
Keith
9 years ago

He could’ve cleared them with a FAT bike?

What?
What?
9 years ago

If he was on a 27.5 it would have rolled right over that.

AlanM
AlanM
9 years ago

@Jimmie, it’s not the job of the course marshalls to run on to the course and actively take the guy down. Cycling is different from other sports in that you have long open courses that we allow spectators to get right up next to. Your comparisons to other sports make no sense at all. You can’t prevent a determined idiot from doing something like this. There is no way you can blame the organizers or the marshalls (who are likely to be volunteers.)

C2R
C2R
9 years ago

Being a roadie, I have no clue so I’d love to see a link to a video of how that section was “intended” to be ridden if anyone has one! I don’t know much but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t like that.

Dave
9 years ago

@C2R, see Brendan Fairclough nail it at about 50 seconds in on this vid: http://www.pinkbike.com/news/video-world-cup-dh-round-2-highlights-2014.html

Mirwin
Mirwin
9 years ago

WC DH course and no helmet = Darwin award.

Oderus
Oderus
9 years ago

@AlanM, that’s exactly the job of the course marshal…….to protect the athletes by keeping situations like this from happening. I enjoy a good crash as much as the next guy but Jimmie has a point. That dude should have never been out there.

puffy
puffy
9 years ago

So put a helmet on and he’s fine? I think the lack of skill is the problem.

cole
cole
9 years ago

@C2R there’s a better view of Gee Atherton flying through them at 4:50 in the video Dave linked. The answer appears to be that you launch into them going 100 mph and then magically float through them as if they aren’t actually there.

0candles
0candles
9 years ago

@puffy Lack of skill indeed. @cole, Leaning over the rear wheel and lifting the front wheel definitely helps too. DH 101 methinks.

rob
rob
9 years ago

interesting the bike rumor removed my criticism of them making a laughing stock of this blokes very bad decision… point of origin guess, the police of the world right?!

RUSTYDOGG
RUSTYDOGG
9 years ago

I don’t see the big deal here. What happened to people being responsible for their own actions? If anything that dumb-ass should be financially responsible for any damage to that rig.

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