Myriam Nicole crashed hard during practice for the Rose Bikes BDS at Fort William on the weekend. Everyone is happy to learn that she only suffered a broken collar bone in the crash and we all wish her a speedy recovery.
More updates to come with regards to her return to racing later in the season.
Terrible crash and she still got up really quick. What a beast. Good thing about collarbones is that they heal fast especially if she doesn't need surgery so hopefully we will see her back in action soon enough!
All depends on the severity, Scott. I broke mine last July and didnt get doctors clearance to do anything other than sit still for 6 months! I was only 24 also, so it wasnt an age thing. It all depends on the severity of the injury, and that crash looks like it could have done serious damage
Heals faster with surgery. I got a plate putting mine back together and took my first trip to northstar 2 months later. That was a nasty crash though, I shudder seeing a body hit the ground like that now.
Andreu landed in the best possible position apart from his legs being above his head at the time. He's also built like a titanium gorilla so it's not fair to compare him to anyone. I'm surprised she didn't break her neck, this was a worst case scenario fall.
@scott-townes Collar bones are one of the longest to heal, especially if you DON"T get surgery! You can't put a cast on the clavicle and every time you breath it moves a little. I should know, i had a broken collar bone that didn't heal after a year and had to get surgery. Had a rod put it and it healed within weeks. Good luck Myriam!
slayer- one of the longest to heal? you can't be serious if you knew how long it took for other fractures/brakes to happen for other parts. From what I understand, surgery can make the healing time quicker depending on the surgery and break you have. I broke mine twice, without needing surgery. It never took longer than a month and I've never heard of anyone taking longer than a year to heal (that's with people who absolutely shattered it). Maybe your healing time was way slower due to whatever factors (judging from your post doctors made a wrong call saying you didn't need surgery but in the end you did) but that's absolutely not normal.
@scott-townes it's the other way round, if you need surgery they heal quicker, I broke mine into 5 pieces overshooting a table last year and was back on my road bike 6 days after surgery and mtb after 6 weeks, MotoGP stars have ridden a day after surgery in the past. With a plate holding the bone together your pain free in a week or two, with no surgery you have to be immobilised to allow the bone to heal naturally and that will take months
@graeme187 Just a expression 20 years meaning when you get older your body reminds you beat it up. I had almost the same faceplant in 1996. I now can predict a weather change.
Clavicles take longer to heal because they are hard to immobilize unless you have surgery. Mine took longer to fuse because I went to work after the first week and couldn't stop moving around.
Heal up quick Pompon! Gotta get the surgery it will heal way faster! She wasn't wearing a neck brace, that could've help keep her helmet from contacting her collarbone. And it wouldn't matter how slow her end stroke rebound was set she still would have gone over the bars. The best thing to do is land both wheels at the same time or even a little nose heavy. Then she probably would have careened off track or exploded on impact, either of which would be better than getting catapulted over the bars.
People really need to research neck braces before spouting shit! The are DESIGNED to break your collarbone and save your neck, wearing a neck brace would have made naff all difference to the state of her collarbone
I broke mine and rode Megavalanche 5 weeks later....
A mate broke his last January and didn't get back back to work or back on a bike until yesterday.
It's all about how it breaks, where etc.
I agree that operated it must take less time, and if she's thinking about WC she'll prob have it plated already.
Healing vibes. That video made me flinch, a lot.
Firstly, much healing vibes to Ms Nicole- that was REALLY uncomfortable viewing and get well soon, so sorry that she will miss the next round(s)! Secondly, can anyone explain what went wrong here with the take off?? I understand how the cased landing bucked her out the front door but it was almost like her body position froze on take off, landing heavy on the back wheel. I wouldn't likely hit that jump myself, but it seemed like there was a bit of hesitation/panic on take off? Could it have been the wind?
Body position too far back on thr bike, looks like she bucked back on the lip and tried to correct. When she squawked is when she realized she was in a bad spot and decided to ride it out and hope to hell the bike would take it.
It kinda looks like she came up a bit short on the the jump right before this one. Maybe she thought she had slowed down because of that and gave it a few too many pedal strokes.
She did everything right, just landed exactly in the wrong spot. Those jumps are big, and she landed one wheel on the short landing, one on the downslope of the triple. Her momentum meant she was bucked forwards even tough she was leaning back like crazy. i think it was just because she went for the triple, while not having the speed to land it.
Yeah it does look like she came up a bit short. Also the jump does kinda appear to have a first transition which makes the distance a bit deceptive. Anyways what a hit. Sending vibes.
Most dudes I see that overshoot jumps to flat tend to land the back wheel first, like in moto. When you don't have the right speed to make a landing, you know pretty much right away. I'm guessing she knew she was going to land in a bad spot and tried landing in a way where she'd have the highest chance of riding outta it. Unfortunately this landing would take anyone out it would seem.
I'd say hindsight being 100% and all that... the landing was completely botched before the wheels hit the ground. Dropping the rear into a transition like that is asking for trouble. She has come up short, but by dropping the rear the front has loaded excessively onto the transition, throwing her centre of mass forward and the rear suspension has acted like a catapult. Both wheels at once would be have been a better outcome, and perhaps allowed her weight to control the rebound a bit better. Not being able to see the third transition from take off wouldn't make this an easy jump to clear smoothly.
My 'not so scientific observation' Cased the first landing which caused her to lose to much speed, then came up short on the second. Also she was too far back on the bike while in the air which is easy to do when you haven't came into the jump with the right speed
Looking at the video, looks like she g'd out from landing so hard on the back wheel, and when the shock rebounded, it did so with enough force to push the back wheel off the ground. Thats just a guess from the video.
She knew the moment she took off. She started shouting when the bike was still on the way up. Chilling.
After she cased the last one and seemed to labor through the transition, she looked out of sync and maybe tired. I think the basic cause of the crash was lifting the front wheel on take-off. I don't think speed/landing-point was the issue.
She didn't have the speed to clear, but it wouldn't have mattered if she were balanced in the air. Could've landed flat, no problem. IMO, she lets go the yelp because she's too vertical and feels/fears she's going to loop out. Impossible to tell for certain, but she may have grabbed rear brake, given how violently the bike bucks forward. The wheel is certainly stopped during the endo, but when exactly she braked is hard to say. In retrospect, a loop out would have been preferable.
Coming up short is certainly not helping, but it is compounded by being way to nose high. Had she landed nose first or both tires together, she likely could have ridden it out okay, though still a hard hit. As said above, nose high causes a catapult affect. Back hits hard and stops, lots of rotation around the center, front hits and compresses as rear rebounds and throws you over, momentum and spring force.
I also believe that is why she shouted so early, she knew it was too nose high and that she was too far back on the bike. Maybe she tried to pull to hard to make it and it through off her balance. But looks more of a mistake not a technique issue.
Yep, agree with Phillyenduro.
Tired or exhaustion makes our body out of sync, been there. So when i tired i never do a jump, because a blank moment in the air gonna make a bad consequences
Look even closer and you'll notice that not only the rear suspension bottomed out, but her butt makes contact with the legs, acting like a break. That slows the bike down relatively to the rider's body giving her the impuls to go over the bars.
What a shame.
I'm not joking when I say: we tend to see this more often - especially with the shorter grown ladies - due to the bigger 650b wheels.
I just gave my analysis based upon what i saw by watching the video several times, no big deal if people don't agree. everyone is allowed to have there own opinion and analysis, no harm done. Lots of good points made in here. All said and done, the only one that really needs to be said is we hope to see Pom challenging the other ladies for the win soon as possible!
well said @joose I don't think you needed flaming there, some people taking my enquiry too seriously I think. Personally, I was curious as to the mechanism of the crash and as I have little experience of huge air I thought id see who had some insight. Some good observations there it seems.
Pause the video at exactly the point where she landed (around 4 seconds) to see what she did wrong. The front wheel must have been almost 3 feet off the ground when the rear wheel first came in contact with the ground.
41 demented people faved this video. I find it creepy as a mountain biker who has crashed so many times over decades I felt her collar bone, my C3 dislocate and my 13 ribs re-braking along with both scaphoids.
Ouch! Heal up well Myriam! I crashed like this in Whistler last year and broke my humerus. I have never felt as helpless as I did when I realized I was going over the bars and could do nothing about it but wait to hit the ground.
Obviously 90% of the people on here commenting are all riding the world circuit, have never crashed, or if they did, executed a perfect bail resulting in zero injuries and would land those jumps perfect every time. Cone on guys, accidents happen. Here's hoping for a fast recovery.
I have seen this happen before, upon landing her seat hit the rear wheel, and caused the rear end to buck. And I'm sure her rebound is set really fast made the situation worse. that is just a straight case, I really hope the rider recovers quickly
It might have worked out better for her if she had put both wheels down at the same time. As she did it, the rear suspension compressed first. As the rear was rebounding, the front suspension was being compressed. That can be a bad combination.
I broke mine last summer,we'll split it in 3 when I hit a lampost on way home from riding trails,mine has healed fine and now 1/3 the original size,was told it would heal stronger but the first ride is a bit scary but I get some numbness is cold mornings and expect to have arthritis pain in years to come
Looks like she wasn't going fast enough over the previous jump, then into no-man's land - take it slow or have a go to clear it. Wind probably didn't help. I'm not convinced there's any need for that extra hump on the landing, but she probably wasn't far away from making it ok, maybe the slightest shift of weight, dunno....anyway, not nice to see her crash like that and I hope she heals up quickly and well.
When she realized that OTB were inevitable she should have tried to roll over her shoulder. I learnt that rolling over when I was a kid in judo classes and it saved me from braking collarbones a few times when I had my own OTBs.
That is correct. Neck Braces are designed to transfer the force of the wreck to your shoulders/collarbone opposed to your neck and spine. She may have still broken her collar bone with a brace on, however it would have been added security for her neck. Heal up quick!
Yes, Me. I over shot the rock drop on A-line 3 summers ago and landed directly on the left side of my head and shoulder. The impact cracked my neck brace, separated my shoulder from the down force, and I sustained a concussion. I firmly believe without it I would have had seriously neck injuries from that crash. I hit the ground so hard that I, still to this day, don't remember how I got from the place I fell, to the hospital. For that, I tip my head to leatt braces.
I would say that regardless of the brace I would have sustained a nasty shoulder injury. So that was going to happen regardless. But I will definitely agree that the brace saved my neck, and my life.
Thank you for answering, because as an amateur like most of us here, I'm intested in testimonies more than I trust advertising ! And yeah, my first impression about neckbraces is "it must be very annoying !" but I really understand the possible benefit in case of crash...
Neck braces definitely do increase the risk of a clavicle injury. All that energy and force has to go somewhere, and the collar bone is generally the weak link. It's not necessarily a bad thing. A collar bone you can be back within a month, a spinal injury could be life ending.
yeah so she broke a collarbone but did not have a spinal injury without a neck brace...neck braces may or may not cause collarbone injuries...so why should neck braces be mandatory? if this taught us anything its that we need collarbone protectors...or ban big jumps...what a dumb discussion.
Broke my collar bone with a neck brace on but glad I had it on, could feel my the brace working but could also feel the brace braking my collar bone as I slid along the floor on my face, better a collar bone then braking neck or back tho! Also neck braces only brake collar bones if you crash and you head goes to the side instead of up or down because as your head is getting pushed into the side of the neck brace it pushes down on your collar bone and depending on what speed you hit the floor the brace will brake your collar bone! But as I say defo would of been a broken neck without it
Ouch. It looks as if she froze in take off position on the bike i.e kept the nose high take off angle instead of moving to the center of the bike and getting ready to land. I think that she could and should have been able to ride it out had she done that. I have ridden out a few rear wheel only short landings on various size jumps, but this video is a good reminder of how things can go horribly wrong. Interesting that landing rear wheel or front wheel too low can result in the same outcome. On a recent ride off a natural drop which I have gradually been increasing my speed on, I over rotated pulling the bars up too much , the rear wheel dropped out from under me and I literally fell off the back of the bike while holding the bars. :-)
that new bike is cool but this may have exposed a bit of a weakness. rearward axle path doesn't like the pancake landings much. heal up pompon. this yrs tracks are suited to her. another gnar rider down sucks. have a beer w Sam and come back and kill it this yr
I think it was really windy that day according to the race reports. Sometimes when you go off a lip and get blown sideways a bit the natural reaction is to freeze. Then butt hit the tire and sent her over the bars. Jumping in the wind sucks!
I was talking to her about 10 seconds before this happened and I asked her how the wind was affecting the jumps and she said quite bad. unfortunately heared the news about the crash over the marshals radio bit gutting when you have just had a conversation with the rider.
I watched that slo mo vid and it looks like she grabbed the rear brake on landing, probably a natural reaction to slow down what she felt was an impending crash, which as someone else said, would greatly increase the likelihood of going over the bars. Of course, I would never even hit that jump in the first place...
Thats nothing ,I slipped on a banana skin one day ,Fell over and grazed both my knees .the scabs I had on them were horrible although when they were ready they tasted pretty good !!!!
also why in the hell is that jump like that...... thats ridiculous make a long landing i would not wanna hit anything like that with two landings I've been to whistler, highland, silverstar, and many other places and never seen a jump that is like that tbh thats a poor design that would have never happened if it was a long consistent landing really stupid and i hope she recovers quick
Presuming that all riders have already walked and ridden the track and know the jump is set out like this, I can't see a big issue with it's design. It basically there to separate the riders that can hit it with enough speed to clear the entire thing, or forces you to slow down and use the middle transition, giving the advantage to those that can clear it. So in that sense its a good race track feature, but the trade off is (in this case) catastrophic if you land between the two transitions. It's a bad feeling as you take off and you know your not going to make it.
i could understand where your coming from but Ive raced almost everywhere in North America and never seen something like that. why not make the jump a simple table top without the stupid hump in the middle thats just a stupid design and wether they walked it or not I'm sure many went wtf is that. even at MSA they know how to separate the riders properly by rerouting around certain jumps ensuring something like this didn't happen.
if your implying that whistler is boring highland is boring and MSA is boring then I guess so because those are the places I'm talking about...... most placed just make longer landings or ways around a feature.. that make more sense then something like that
Nice try, but it was never suggested those places are boring. Rather, it sounds boring if you've never seen anything like that jump.
The same thing will happen on any jump when you come up short with the bike pointed upward like that. You're going to get bucked over the bars. The design of this jump had nothing to do with her crash. Myriam just hit it at the wrong speed and launched it at a bad angle.
I hope you heal quickly Myriam!
Bon rétablissement Myriam ! Je ne sais pas si ça aurait changé quelque chose pour ce qui est de la clavicule, mais stp mets un neckbrace ! On tient à toi nous !
Dumb question but, when you feel yourself going over the bars like that what should you do? Would hitting the back brake even with the wheel in the air help to bring you back or pulling up on the bars?
hitting the back break will make it worse. in my experience, the best thing you can do is make sure your rebound is slow enough for jumping, and if you get bucked a bit, lean back. she also cased the prior jump pretty bad, i don't recommend going for a jump if you case right before.
If you ever find yourself in this situation, realize you're going to crash and don't stiffen up. Fall like jello because there's absolutely nothing you can do about this so you might as well minimize the risk of breaking things. If you can, commando roll and come away a hero.
You'll notice that just after she bucks the back end up she loosens her grip and upper body and takes the hit rather than tensing up and trying to "tank" it out.
actually pulling the back brake when you are in the air brings your front wheel down, motocrossers do it all the time to dip their nose when in the air.
It could have helped in that situation but its not always easy to remember when you know you are about to crash though.
Hum, I would just brace for impact if I know Im going down. Like when you go otb like you know theres no return. Would mainly still look far ahead since your body should follow your eyes, in order not to fall too akwardly like upside down and have a more serious injury
This is all 20/20 hindsight stuff, but from my viewpoint... she doesn't extend her arms, which is good, but ends up going straight into the dirt with both elbows, deflecting the impact onto her neck and right shoulder. If you see it coming and have time to react(which she does), I'd suggest you'd be better off dipping your torso down and lowering the right shoulder across your body to the left. Take the initial hit with the RIGHT forearm>elbow>shoulder/shoulder blade>hip>ass>etc. The goal in dipping and crossing is to incite more of a lateral roll, avoiding the straight on impact or scorpion at all cost. Every crash is different, and of course, YMMV.
As an ex-motocrosser(and not a very good one) I do remember using my rear brake to push the front end down in the air. But those KX250 wheels are so much heavier and have so much more power in them, I'm not sure if it would actually work on a mtb with today's super light carbon rims... I haven't gotten big enough air on a mtb to try it. I noticed she was still clipped in til impact, which I'll betcha makes it a lot harder to get into a good tuck and roll type position. Im glad she wasn't hurt worse, she's hardcore jumping right back up after a landing like that. Respect!
It works on MTB, Wheel size and weight makes no difference. You don't need to do a massive jump, find a jump you are comfortable on and pull the handlebars to your chest when in the air and pull the back brake and you feel the front end pull down. Just give quick dabs on the brake rather than hold it in though. If you are not comfortable with that then find a foam pit and try it.
Looks like throwing the bike backwards between your legs could maybe be a better option (landing on your knees/elbows), but agree with @scottomatic, that being clipped in makes it almost impossible.
She looks like she would of fared better without the clip's, her body seemed so rigidly attached to the bike when she got thrown forward. Atleast I am pretty sure she was clipped in.
Clipped in or not, slammers are slammers. Look at Sam Hill in Hafjell last World Champs crash. His feet are not clipped in, but still on the pedals while he is searching that illustre penny and his bike is on top of him. Just physics
She messed up by continuing to hold on to the bars well past the point of being able to put them out in front to brace your impact with your arms. She didn't let go till her arms were almost pointing backwards. instead she hit the floor like a sack of potatoes. definitely gonna break something.
When you have body armor on and you put your arms out, you slide on your belly. Sure you get road rash, but your elbow pads and chest pads absorb most of that. Would have gotten the wind knocked out of her for sure, but would have walked away.
We can have that debate again that its not cool to wear body armor, but you see where that ends up.... broken!
And that pushed her forward up.
After she cased the last one and seemed to labor through the transition, she looked out of sync and maybe tired. I think the basic cause of the crash was lifting the front wheel on take-off. I don't think speed/landing-point was the issue.
What a shame.
I'm not joking when I say: we tend to see this more often - especially with the shorter grown ladies - due to the bigger 650b wheels.
About respect for getting up immediately: After a hard crash like this, it is best to stay down and not move until first aid is administered.
She a pro or somethin?
m.youtube.com/watch?v=i7dbdZlsR3Y