Damian BC Epic

[Bosie]

Hi,

For those interested Damian is riding BC Epic this week (Well the next couple of days).

You can watch his dot here:http://trackleaders.com/bcepic22

Rumour has it he is attempting to beat Rob Brittons recent FKT:
https://bikepacking.com/news/rob-britto ... -1000-fkt/

GO Damian!

[Claire]

Trackleaders is very exciting today! Damian had been sitting in 3rd pretty much from the beginning, but the three of them all gathered at the Balfour ferry last night, awaiting this morning's 6:30am sailing.

Now Cory Ostertag and Damian are riding together (whether by choice or happenstance, who knows?) and have crested the big, tough climb of the whole thing at around 800km.

They're unlikely to take down Rob Britton's FKT, as Rob did it at a different time and didn't have to wait for a ferry. But the battle up front is incredible!

[Claire]

I thought I’d provide an update on Damian, as a few friends have asked what happened to his moving dot in the BC Epic 1000 - an absurdly long bikepacking/ultra-endurance event (actually 1040km) that started last Saturday.

Damian was doing AWESOME, staying in the top three for 1000km, with just a few short stops to relieve the overheating, charge his devices, briefly nap, eat, etc. He was solidly in second place behind past winner Cory Ostertag and a few km ahead of third place (the rest of the field was over 100km back), when, with 40km to go, Damian hit a big rock at high speed (in the dark), which threw him off the bike, landing him mostly on his back on some rather unforgiving rocks.

He was able to send an SOS signal from his nearly-dead InReach device, and search and rescue was alerted to his situation and location. He spent four hours on the side of the trail (mostly sleeping!) awaiting his rescuers. A 4x4, an ambulance, a bit of a voyage to Fernie’s hospital for x-rays and assessment…

Outcome is some bruises and road (trail?) rash and a fractured right scapula (shoulder blade). He’s now in Cranbrook awaiting further assessment of the break and a visit from an ortho. Hopefully no surgery is required and he’ll be making his way home fairly soon. He remains, as always, in good spirits and is already planning his return next year

Update from D quite recently:

"So just got my cat scan and went over it with the orthopod, looks like I got really lucky, you can see I split that whole horn of the scapula down to the base, and the force popped a piece of bone off thither side of it too (that little piece is a non issue). Doc expects sling off in 4 weeks and full recovery in 6, so I'm pretty pleased with that!! exercises can start pretty much right away focusing on keeping mobility good in the elbow and shoulder "