FR EE
full sus
April 2016, Vol 33
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Tankwa Trek Page 14
Bike Review Page 16
Groot Lem Page 26
Gear Page 28
XTERRA Page 20
CONCUSSION
Injuries FS
Somehow Seamus Allardice managed to go 30 years without a concussion but on a ride in the Garden Route Trail Park the inevitable eventually happened. Kicking off our safety issue he reflects on the concussion and some newly acquired caution when it comes to trail safety.
of trail: G-Flow. G-Flow is fast, and as the name suggests flowing, with berms and little rollers/jumps; it was one of the first sections of trail to be built at the Trail Park and was designed and built by Mark Gordon of Stellenbosch’s G-Spot fame. It’s not a difficult section of trail by any means, especially compared to some of the tricky sections higher up in the Trail Park. But I was tired, I’d been stressed in the weeks leading up to the ride by a heavy work load and I’d hardly ridden my bike in the month before. Somewhere, somehow it all went wrong. When I came to – not regained consciousness, that must have happened within seconds of the crash – I was signing myself in to the Knysna Life Hospital at 20:30 under the concerned eye of Louise Wilson of Garden Route Events. I’d lost about three hours of memory, none of which has come back. There’s a photo trail though, which helps – in an embarrassing sort of way. From what I’ve been able to piece together, some of Rob Dormehl’s
Sadly there’ll be no Dead Man’s Tree in the 2016 Prologue.
ROB DORMEHL
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y younger brother is the family expert on concussion. He’s been concussed at least four times. But somehow, despite being just as boisterous as a laaitie, playing rugby throughout school, playing hockey on terrible grass fields at school and varsity, downhill skateboarding for a couple of years, and now mountain biking, I’d never been concussed until the 27th of February 2016. My 30 year and a couple of hundred day run came to a spectacular end when it did though. And worst of all I still have absolutely no idea what happened. I was at the GR300 and after stage two, in the Garden Route Trail Park, I went for a quick ride. I was short on time and on my own, so I rode as hard as I could. I’ve ridden the Trail Park before, but that was over a year ago so I can hardly claim to know the trails. The last thing I remember was checking my watch and noting that I was running out of time to get back to Thesen Island in time for a shower and get ready for supper at 18:30. I’d just entered the last section
Seamus Allardice checking out his badly buckled rim with no clue whose wheel he’s looking at.
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