Sea Otter Classic: Lindsay Currier will help women shine in gravity events …
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When Lindsay Currier broke her back in a mountain bike accident in Santa Cruz in 2008, her dreams were derailed. A novice downhill mountain biker who had recently discovered her love of competition, Currier, then 23, had to shift her life’s direction.
Fast forward four years. After extensive surgery, exhaustive physical therapy and eight months wearing a back brace, Currier, 27, is not only back in the bike saddle again, but is riding the way she loves — bombing downhill and hitting bigger jumps.
But there’s a difference now: She’s riding a whole lot smarter and she’s teaching other women cyclists to ride smarter, too, specifically in the discipline of downhill mountain biking. At the Sea Otter Classic next weekend in Monterey, several Currier-coached women will compete in the pro division of the gravity events.
“It’s hard to find women like Lindsay who do all-mountain riding,” said Chris Wagner-Jauregg, owner of Another Bike Shop, the Westside Santa Cruz store where Currier worked for two years. “She goes for it; she’s not afraid to test her limits.”
CRASH AND BURN
Currier was testing her limits — albeit without proper coaching — when she crashed her mountain bike in 2008.
Currier said things had started smoothly on the trails that day in January.
“I was training with a group of guys and gals,” she said. “I was trying to work on building up speed.”
She remembers feeling eager to push herself harder. She had
recently competed in her first downhill race and felt strong and confident. But suddenly things went very wrong.
“I was using bike pedals that were not mine, and then I hit a feature — a small drop — and I went over the bars, hard. I wasn’t even doing anything that crazy, just going really, really fast,” she said.
Her memory of the events that followed is hazy.
“I was backboarded out by First Response. They carried me out and I took an ambulance to Dominican Hospital where I stayed for a month. I had shattered my L1 lumbar vertebrae, the first vertebrae before my rib cage,” she said.
The doctor assured her she would walk again. He also predicted that Currier would ride a bike again, too, but in a gentle style, not in the way she loved — racing downhill.
“I had to
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