A bit of an up and down weekend for our Leicestershire-based Diamondback riders.
Podium place for Phil Evans
Phil Evans scored a hat trick of firsts in the quarters, semi and finals at the Lemington Spa 4X track on his Diamondback Bandito. Meanwhile Matt Charter took a tumble at the same track and has been lying in bed with a fractured spine and John Lee dislocated his shoulder for the sixth time this year – oww!
Matt said: “Two weeks ago I was riding Leamington Spa 4X track in preparation for a race. I was getting to grips with it well and feeling a good speed. I decided to go flat out down the first straight and try a tight triple at the end. When I reached the third jump (the first reasonably sized) I tried squashing it more than normal with the idea to maintain more speed into the next triple. I misjudged the landing and caught my front wheel on the top of the landing, this sent me over the bars.
“When I came down I landed head first flipping onto my back at the next takeoff, I landed very hard and decided to stop riding for the day.
”After painfully driving home and getting sorted the following afternoon we decided to go down to A&E to get it checked out. I got taken for and x-ray and the results were that I had vertebrae in my spine that looked abnormal. The whole mood changed and I was told not to move and lie flat on my back. After a bit of a wait I was taken for a CT scan that confirmed I had fractured my spine in 3 places!
“This meant spending a few nights in hospital, I stayed one night in Hinchinbrook Hospital then the following day I was transferred to Addenbrookes as they had a more specialist spinal ward. When I arrived here there was a 50/50 chance that an operation would be needed. Thankfully as the week went on it was decided that an operation wasn’t necessary and the bones would fuse together naturally and all that was needed is bed rest. After 5 days in hospital I was allowed home with a back brace.
“I can’t wait to get back on the bike again but I’ve got to make sure my spine’s fully fixed so I don’t have more problems in the future!”
Matt will be away from his Diamondback Bandito for two to three months so we wish him well with his recovery. Matt – check out these Diamondback videos if you need some motivation for your recovery!
John Lee also told us more about his injury: “So this week ups my shoulder dislocations to six times this year. My new shoulder consultant has bumped me up the surgery waiting list and until then I’ll get ready for the next race, brace it up and get ready to make my weird come back from over nine months of injury! I feel like I have a mountain to move so it’s time to get back on it (again) and attempt to juggle life, work, family, money and everything else to try and get back in the mindset for this again! Thanks to everyone who supports me when I feel like I’m letting you down, it means a lot!”
- Podium place for Phil Evans
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