Mountain biking as a sport is changing. In the last five years in particular, mountain biking has increasingly become an extreme sport, as the rise of enduro biking has meant that the masses are also facing ever greater technical challenges. Technical progress plays a key role in this. If we were still at the level of ten years ago, touring bikes with 160 millimetres of suspension travel and more would not be possible. This can provide safety in difficult passages, but it also makes the sport faster and therefore more dangerous.
At the fifth stop of the Enduro World Series in Crested Butte, Colorado, the bike community was given a tragic reminder of just how dangerous and fast it can be. Will Olson from Edwards, Colorado, had an accident on Stage 3 on Saturday, 1 August 2015. According to information from the website Velonews.com Will Olson suffered a serious internal injury to his chest caused by blunt force trauma, but the exact circumstances of the accident are not known.
Although, according to the organisers of the EWS, a paramedic was on the scene "within minutes", Olson's death could no longer be prevented. The doctor, who arrived by helicopter around half an hour later, was only able to determine that the rider had died. The race was cancelled immediately after the accident. After the Death of the young Annefleur Kalvenhaar At the 2014 cross-country eliminator in Méribel, Will Olson is the second person to die in a mountain bike race within a year.
Adrian Kaether
Editor
