Mountain Biker Passes Away on Vancouver Island Trails
The BC Coroner's Service is investigating the death of a mountain biker who crashed on the Cumberland Trails on Vancouver Island on Tuesday.
Authorities were alerted at 6:45pm after he was found on the Blockhead trail. The rider, who has not yet been identified, is aged between 55-60 and was riding by himself. He was an experienced, local mountain biker and was wearing protective gear. When the authorities arrived they found three fellow mountain bikers had been performing CPR on the fallen man for 40 minutes, they had apparently spoken to him at the trailhead just five minutes before his crash.
Cumberland Fire Chief Mike Williamson told the Comox Valley Record, "We found out the (rider) was non-responsive. There was a couple of bikers who came across him and began performing CPR. I know the trails quite well and it’s about 12 km up in the bush by the Cumberland watershed. It’s a long way in there so we sent guys in the bottom and up to the top.”
The Comox Valley RCMP, BC Ambulance along with the BC Coroner’s Service attended the scene. The rider was pronounced deceased at the scene and the incident is not being considered suspicious.
From all of us at Pinkbike, our thoughts are with his family, friends, and community.
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Gutted. Absolutely GUTTED.
Dude sure could rip on his hardtail. I couldn't keep him within view of my GoPro on my full suspension. Crazy basturd.
He loved beer at the Cumberland Brewing Company and was an avid trail builder/maintainer, and an incredible advocate of Cumberland.
He was living large and loving life. His strava feed indicated he had 105 rides for 2019, and 2001 kms of hard earned dirt.
Jerry, aka Travis Bickle, aka Legbacon, was a one of a kind guy. I feel blessed to have met him, and to have ridden with him and his crew.
He is a legend. And as with others who have passed way before their time, legends NEVER die.
Cheers Jerry. My God, we will all miss you dearly.
GUTTED.
As I said below, on my last day of riding in Cumby late last summer, I bought Jerry and his crew a tab at the Cumberland Brewing Company (I think they hung a glass on the wall with the dollar amount on it, or something like that). That was a very small token of my appreciation for his patience on the trail the days that my daughter insisted that she join us. I actually thought at the time that if Jerry hadn't already earned his place in heaven, he sure did after enduring some of those rides :-)
Hey god, sign me up. McGazza had it right, just clocked out too early.
Way better than a car wreck. Or cancer.
Thoughts of love to his family and community
RIP (Ride In Peace) fellow shredder.
RIP Jerry.
Man, he sure did love the Cumberland Brewing Company. And he was SO proud of it and of Cumberland when the CBC first opened.
On my last day of riding in Cumby late last summer, I bought Jerry and his crew a tab at the CBC (I think they hung a glass on the wall with the dollar amount on it, or something like that). That was a very small token of my appreciation for his patience on the trail the days that my daughter insisted that she join us. I actually thought at the time that if Jerry hadn't already earned his place in heaven, he sure did after enduring some of those rides :-)
. Jerry had a wry sense of humor and a clearly had his opinions but he was a gentle soul of a man (although he wasn't fond of E* MT Bikes). He welcomed anyone to ride and was a great ambassador for Cumberland, Cumberland Brewery, Riders Pizza, Blacks Cycle and mountain biking in general. He proudly served his country and freely shared many stories of his rich and full life. I and the other "Muddhuggers" had the honour of riding with Jerry often and reflecting back now I wish I had relished the times we spent together with more intention. This short note doesn't do the man justice but it's my humble attempt.
Jerry we miss you.
The beer is still cold for me and I hope it will be a while. Hopefully for all of us on the addicted list.
Ride with a buddy …or a few…..trouble is you ride faster then
Wishing you a safe ride in the forest trails!
www.velonews.com/cycling-to-extremes-heart-health-and-endurance-sports
Not fitness related, but still related, I bought and built a Druid. I have not yet found the limits of that bike on the downs. I am addicted to the blazing speed that thing is capable of. After owning and enjoying well over 2 dozen bikes, and thinking that I finally found the unicorn, in an ironic twist, maybe this was not such a good idea after all, especially if I and up wrapped around a tree.
One thing though... Jerry - with that Druid, I would bet you a pitcher of beer at the Cumberland Brewing Company that I would have at least been able to narrow the gap between us on the downs :-)
I'm healthy, not overweight, and generally ride 4-5 times per week, at least. According to my cardiologist, who has been in practice for > 20 years, he's had less than 10 people work on prevention in his entire career, everyone comes after the fact.
He also told me I was also his healthiest patient, but I still am on statins to reduce my cholesterol. No matter how I eat or how I exercise, my levels were high and the only way to keep it to safe levels was with medication. I've seen others that said they had marathon runners on the medication as well, because without it they would have dangerous cholesterol levels.
Sometimes you roll a low number on the genetic lottery and get stuck with something you can't avoid. For some people, they just need to be on the medication no matter how fit they are.
Either way, this is really bad advice. For some people, genetics play a much bigger role in their susceptibility to heart disease and high cholesterol. For many, it’s a diet issue, but for me, it is not. The only way for people to know is to be tested regularly, but assuming diet and exercise are enough for everyone is exactly how people end up in these situations, where otherwise active and healthy people end up having heart attacks.
Sugar is also a major contributor, some argue more than meat consumption.
I went about 3 weeks of trying to cut refined sugar out in it's entirety and it was very difficult, very expensive, and very tedious to try and eliminate refined sugar from my diet entirely. You can do it, but the cost of some items that eliminate it from your diet is much higher than products that have it, if you can find them at all. I ultimately gave in on vacation, but plan on doing it longer term again soon, because I felt so much better without it. I can only imagine the positive effects it would have on people that consume a lot of soft drinks or other sugary drinks. I'm also really interested in seeing what it does for my bloodwork.