“All Dirt Fondo routes are planned with mountain and gravel bikes in mind. Upright bars and suspension will have advantages on the trails and rutted fire road segments, but a gravel bike is great for the smoother fire road bits and road segments. Either way, be prepared for some challenges along the way and walk tough sections if it looks too difficult – no one will judge you!” 2024 Dirt Fondo in Marin, CA.
Unfortunately, I took a hard fall last Saturday at the Dirt Fondo. I flipped on the bike riding a heavy rock garden-esque descent, landing primarily on my right leg around the knee. If you look at the images in the link, my descent was comparatively much rockier and chopped up – imagine pieces of large rock. I later realized I took some impact on my hands (I assumed I tried to brace myself), right forearm and left leg as well. The shock was immediate. I couldn’t move for a while and my right leg just shook uncontrollably. I had a small 1inch diameter cut below the knee which didn’t look bad but I immediately thought, what if I broke my leg?
I was fortunate that a pair of riders was right behind me and saw the crash. They helped make sure I was ok and went back to the previous rest stop to ask for help before moving on. I waited a bit, but when it didn’t seem like help was coming, I decided to continue downhill to make the next rest stop and get help there. Unfortunately, I never saw another rest stop but I did hear from another rider that I was being searched for and I was able to send an update via a volunteer. I rode through more gravel/dirt/rock sections before taking a detour and finding pavement as I rode through beautiful Sausalito back to the start – another 2 hrs of riding after the fall.
- Should I have picked a different path? This is probably the critical issue. Going down, the edge of the mountain was on the left. I am guessing a 10 foot wide path total split into two. On the left edge is a loose (smaller) rock path, on the right is a rock garden-ish path. I don’t remember exactly why I took the right, but here are a few notes I’ve reflected uplon. There was someone going up hill on my left. Did I see that person before picking the right side? I’m not sure but that would have been a reason to go right, there wasn’t room. Loose rock is very slippery, and because that was the mountain edge side, I may not have wanted to be struggling with slowing down on slippery rock. As I started descending perhaps I wanted to move to the loose rock, but that would have been very scary to attempt. I kind of knew the rock descent was difficult but the decision would have been to focus on surviving, not attempting a tricky transition.
- Should I have run different (wider) tires? I ran pretty wide tires for gravel, 42mm S-Works Pathfinders that expanded to 47.2mm on my wheels. MTB tires can be 10-20 mm wider but after I fell, I saw other gravel bike riders (who took the other smaller rock line) on thinner tires.
- Should I have run lower tire pressure? Anything can be second guessed. I was running 22/23 PSI on my tires, which I feel is pretty low. The pair behind me were running wider MTB tires and suspension bikes. Less air would have meant a softer ride but I don’t think that was the culprit.
- Should I have gone slower or faster? On unpaved terrain, I have learned that going faster is often better than going slower because speed helps you roll over obstacles better. I don’t think I was going fast at all, most likely less than 8 mph. It’s hard for me to remember because it was a descent, I was for sure braking or in a brake position in the drops and I was in a rocky path in which I was just trying to go over big rocks non-stop. I didn’t want to go too fast because I didn’t have good traction but going too slow would stop the bike because of the rocks.
- What was my position on the bike? Earlier, I mentioned I flipped over the bike. I don’t think that’s accurate. I didn’t land on my head. I think the bike got stopped on a rock and I had to fall over in the process. I don’t think I was front leaning on the bike, but I’m not sure if I was sitting or in a more crouched/standing position on the saddle.
Sitting down, writing this a couple of days later, I of course want to blame the event a bit. If I’m the only one who fell (I do not know if this is the case), then I have to assume it’s my fault, whether that be due to lack of skill, bad luck, or something else.
As for my injury, I learned I haven’t broken anything, or at least nothing that can be seen on X-Ray. That’s good news so far. The bad news is that I couldn’t walk the day after the event because of the swelling in my leg. Thankfully, my body let me ride and drive home on the event day – I was 1.5 hrs driving away from home.
I feel a lot better two days after the accident (if not a bit tired) and remain hopeful I just need time to heal. I can’t walk unsupported yet.
I Spit Hot Fire 