A Broken Collarbone Takes Loic Bruni Out of the Fort William DH World Cup

May 21, 2022
by Ed Spratt  
Loic Bruni only managed a couple of runs before crashing out. There are not many details at the moment but let s hope it s not too serious.

Loic Bruni will not be competing at the Fort William World Cup after a big crash led to a broken collarbone.

After completing a couple of runs during practice on Friday Loic Bruni had a nasty crash that resulted in a broken collarbone and the end of his time at Fort William. After hearing of his crash yesterday we went by the Specialized pits this morning and have had confirmation that he is out of racing this weekend. Apart from a broken collarbone we don't know how serious Loic's injuries are at this time or how long he will be off the bike.

bigquotesCan't believe I just broke my collarbone... Not so smooth as planned. The butter kit was so lit though! The track is pretty insane but I make a little mistake landing just right of the line and got kicked over the bars decently. Knew straight away it was over, so gutted about this and missing out on the race.— Loic Bruni

We wish Loic all the best with his recovery and hope he is not off the bike for too long.

Posted In:
Racing and Events DH Racing Injuries World Cup DH Loic Bruni Fort William World Cup Dh 2022


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70 Comments
  • 133 9
 Not the kind of news anyone was looking for this morning. Heal fast,Loic!
  • 26 38
flag chmurka3rg (May 21, 2022 at 2:27) (Below Threshold)
 Who downvoted this ???
  • 17 1
 Losing Bruni will make this race less intense and. I wonder if this will keep him out of the Champion points for this year? Our loss too.
  • 26 4
 @chmurka3rg: people in different time zones where it isn't morning probably.
  • 6 0
 @mi-bike: think they missed your joke
  • 8 1
 Better heal up properly than fast.
  • 5 4
 Well.... Too bad for him...
To bad for the show...

1 or 2 races off, and he's out.
Let's focus (again) on the World's.
  • 2 13
flag pugafi (May 21, 2022 at 5:50) (Below Threshold)
 @mi-bike: you must be mr partystarter fooo sho
  • 5 1
 @chmurka3rg: there are quite a lot of knob heads on this website. Spin around with your arms out and you'll hit one.
  • 38 2
 Dang. Didn't even know it was possible to break one of his bones. Assumed his x-ray looks like a mammoth skeleton.
  • 10 1
 More like Wolverines.
  • 14 14
 Umm, really? Bruni's history of injuries and breaks IS mammoth ;p

The crazy thing isn't that he doesn't get broken, it's how he's able to come back
  • 1 0
 This guy has a beer with Chuck Norris
  • 35 3
 “This track has not been kind to me” Bruni 24h before a broken collar bone…
  • 40 7
 Bro put the butter on his tires by accident
  • 7 2
 Bruni uses butter, and Daprela uses banana peels.
  • 9 2
 @Rosstech: gwin uses peanut butter
  • 17 2
 Many injuries...... This sport is starting to be one half Time hospital game.....
  • 17 16
 Just compare with US SX where they've +- 28 races, with only 1 or 2 weekends off.

DH World Cup, is really soft.
Intense but with a really soft calendar.
  • 5 6
 +- 18 races sorry...
  • 16 6
 @ed91: This isnt a dick measuring contest. Being injured is nothing to brag about, it just sucks.
  • 2 6
flag Deadclmbr FL (May 21, 2022 at 5:44) (Below Threshold)
 @endoplasmicreticulum: unless you injured your sick and it somehow got bigger?
  • 1 4
 @endoplasmicreticulum: love the autocorrect
  • 8 0
 @ed91: exactly, if dh had a calendar like SX these guy would have races to make up points after injuries and guys who were consistent like Brosnon would be cleaning up on titles.
  • 3 1
 @ed91: while the jumps and speeds involved in SX are massively bigger than the ones on DH racing, the conditions are much more tightly controlled. The track is smoother, there isn't sudden changes in grip, and in general you race in a track that stays more or less the same through the whole weekend (thanks to massive amounts of work!).

I'm not implying SX is a walk in the park by any means, but merely pointing some additional random factors conditioning the experience for the DH racers.
  • 5 1
 @southoftheborder: Not really. Most SX tracks now have a sand section and may be clay, hardback, or loam the rest of it, plus the track crew doesn’t groom the entire track after each session so funky lips form on whoops and jump faces, and then they water it heavily after qualifying before the main event. It does change dramatically and has cost many riders the win or a podium.
  • 2 0
 Why not to increase safe with a air bag? Organization could take cards on it, spinal injury could be avoid.
  • 5 0
 Unfortunately I feel that's just how this sport will continue to evolve.

It feels (to me, at least) like there's a developing sense of "1st or DNF" in WC DH, meaning riders have to push themselves beyond what might be their normal 'safe' margin if they want to win. 100% doesn't win races anymore, because there's other riders willing to push to 110% and flip the coin on whether they reach the bottom or not.

Nina Hoffman did this in the women's competition a few years back. Zero self-preservation, just speed and crashing. Thibault Darpela comes to mind as a recent example in the men's. Fast AF but also seems to have huge crashes quite often.
  • 11 0
 That's a real bummer for his season, only a 20 day gap to Leogang, so he'll miss that race, then another month to Lenzerheide, so recovering for that round is a pretty big ask, depending on the severity of the break and how quickly he heals.
  • 5 1
 Might even be a season ender. Complicated breaks that require surgery can easily take 3 months to fully heal. By then he could maybe start at world champs and in Val di Sole, but wouldnt be in particularly good shape.
  • 12 0
 The pros don’t mess around. That bandage looks like the surgery’s already happened (same day). Took me a month just to convince docs to bolt me up. Loic basically got his hardware installed trackside. Pidcock was 8 weeks from crash to Olympic gold. Loic’s bones might be training worthy by then but definitely won’t be crash worthy yet. DH is a different beast for sure.
  • 13 0
 Butter days ahead! Heal up quick!
  • 13 2
 Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
  • 7 2
 My daughter is devastated, we are heading down to watch him tomorrow and had to break the news that he won't be racing! Heal up Loic
  • 6 0
 Bruni and fort William don't get along Frown
  • 5 0
 And Aaron Gwin too, 2018 lost the cup, and 2019 flew away.
  • 2 0
 @Rosstech: and now gwin flats and doesn't qualify Frown I Want to see him back on top one day
  • 10 9
 Man every race a top rider breaking bones like crazy there being pushed so past the limit that everyone gets seriuos injury Amaury broke his back a few years ago then his brother then brook mcdonald and broken collarbones fingers just insane like 6 maybe 7 years ago nobody was getting injured so consitently
  • 9 4
 bikes have got insanely good, which makes riders capable of going much much faster and doing gnarlier = more chance of serious injury.
  • 35 1
 LOL I love it when people who only started paying attention to DH in the past few years think injuries didn't used to be a thing. People always got injured, even the top riders. DH is inherently a risky sport, always has been.
  • 7 0
 @scott-townes: yea and can’t use some excuse about the tracks being too smooth and fast these days. Fort William has basically been the same track for the last 20 years.
  • 2 0
 And top names have been axing themselves there the entire time. Beginning of the end for Sam:
www.pinkbike.com/news/sam-hill-crash-fort-williams-2010.html
  • 2 1
 Ahh too bad, hope the recovery goes well Loic.
Shame that would have been a. Good launch if you could have said “as smooth as butter”, ah well you win some you loose some heal up.
Cheers
  • 3 0
 That's crappy for Loic. But he gets to join the coolest scar in the hot tub club.
  • 2 0
 His pov shot of it really makes it seem like a freak thing. A small mistake on a small feature, that's ends with a pretty hard crash. Rough
  • 4 0
 Dégouté…
  • 1 0
 Shaping up to be one hell of a world champs race once again! Overall is looking not possible for loic so he’ll go for 5 time world champion
  • 1 0
 That’s a real shame louco(loic),get well and don’t mind the rest ,4 more weeks and your ready ,take care and enjoy the race :-)))
  • 2 0
 Redbull so lacking in athletes for this one they had to put up the Atherton signal
  • 2 0
 All I have to say is that I’m glad that my $575,000 spend was in fantasy land. Heal up well.
  • 2 0
 Well, that just blows big chunks. Best wishes on a speedy recovery. It would have been nice if this was announced before they locked down the Fantasy League.
  • 1 0
 Not even the best Riders get rid of these things... today you laugh, tomorrow you cry... that's life!!
  • 2 1
 Gutted for you. Heal up quick brother, sending healing vibes.
  • 1 0
 Heel well super bruni see you back on the track soon my friend
  • 3 2
 Fuck, heal up!
  • 2 1
 Merde!!!
  • 1 0
 I’m gutted for Loic!
  • 1 0
 Nooooooo
  • 1 0
 Merde
  • 1 1
 Like Butta!
  • 1 3
 World cup overall for Pierron and Bruni overmotivated for World champs in 3 month in France ... Not that bad
  • 4 0
 There are more good riders on the rosters, Pierron is not alone.
  • 1 3
 @Rosstech: ok we all know but what's tour point exactly ?
  • 4 7
 At least there is so much time between races he will be able to heal and finish PT and recovery before the next race.
  • 7 2
 3 weeks? Not going to happen unless he has superhuman powers of recovery.
  • 6 1
 @commental: are we talking about SUPER Bruni?

I'm being facetious due to the huge gaps in the race season. Obviously he won't be on the bike the next race, but there is genuine potential for him to only miss 2.
  • 1 0
 @RonSauce Two months :-(
  • 1 0
 Yeah, no.
  • 1 0
 Snowshoe looks like a more realistic return goal. Those July races would be tight and he probably wouldn't be up to speed yet.
  • 1 0
 @commental: You apparently missed the sarcasm; in which there are some huge gaps between a few races that are kinda ridiculous and leave fans and racers in limbo for too long.







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