Are crashes common place within BMX Racing?
They definitely go with the territory. The start hills of the tracks we race on at World Cup and World Championship events are about three storeys high, the jumps are a lot bigger than they were and we’re doing around 60kph at the bottom of the hill. So, when you’re competing on that kind of track against seven other guys all pushing at 110%, mistakes don’t just cost you places but can result in some pretty big crashes. As far as injuries go, I guess that when you’re travelling at that sort of speed any crash is going to do damage to your body so unfortunately that’s just part and parcel of the sport which I choose to take part in. Do you need to be fearless to be a professional BMX rider and is that what separates BMX racing from other cycling disciplines? I think that there’s definitely an element of being… I wouldn’t say ‘crazy’ but maybe of being prepared to take risks. You can’t start the race with any negative thoughts like ‘what if I crash?’ or ‘what if I get injured?’. Once y
