Story
Thanks for visiting my page.
Just before the World Cup final on July 11th I’ll be racing in the infamous Megavalanche in Alpe D’Huez, a downhill mountain bike race starting on the glaciated summit of the Pic Blanc (3,300m) and descending to the lush meadows of the valley bottom at Allemont (720m), after some 2000 metres down and 30 km long. Sounds fun hey!
I’ve been racing in the National Mountain Bike XC series this year to get myself into shape and despite my bike being stolen a few weeks back I’m as well prepared as I can be. The highlights of the event will be captured on an onboard helmet cam which I’m borrowing for the event so every crash will be witnessed!
As it’s potentially dangerous I thought I’d use the opportunity to raise money for a spinal research fund, setup by Oswestry Orthopedic Hospital, which I ran the marathon for last year. Briefly, in case you didn’t know, I broke my back in 2004 and thanks to the likes of these guys I’m fully fit again, hence any opportunity I get I try and contribute something toward them to help fight against the tragedies that surround spinal injury.
Anyhow, if you could donate that would be super, I’ll then send you some evidence of the chaos on my return!
Thanks,
Chris
A little more about my injury:
In 2004 I had a ‘little accident’ while snowboarding in 2004, I broke my spine after falling down a cliff in Val D’Isere. Thankfully I made a full recovery and now have full movement and feeling back in my legs. It wasn’t that straight forward though, that year the surgeon had operated on 11 such similar cases of people my age, with a very different outcome, in fact 30% of such spinal injuries have severe consequence i.e. paralysis. It would have been a very different story for me had there not been such progress in spinal research.