Our good friend Mat suffered an accident at the short track race this week, and now he’s paralyzed from the waist down. I’ve rewritten that sentence like twelve times and it still makes me fucking ill. Because I think we all know that things like this can happen when we ride but we never think they will. And then they do. And it sucks so bad.
So I’ll just say this much. Mat is the nicest guy around. Our two teams spent the entire CX season in domestic bliss under the same canopy, and his mood was never south of chipper. Just super fucking great to be around. And he has a perfectly groomed beard. And he smiles 100% of his waking hours. And he beats me in every race we ever do together. And he really is the nicest guy around. And this is pretty much the shittiest thing to happen to the nicest guy around.
But if there’s anyone out there who can throw the beatdown on shitty times, it’s Mat.
The one thing we can all do to help out is donate to his recovery fund. Because this stuff isn’t cheap here in the states. They’ve summed up the situation pretty well on the site:
I know that people pass these links to support people who have had shitty things happen all the time. But this is ours. And it means a lot.
Please pass it along to all of your friends. Especially the really nice ones who always beat you at the races.
Ugghh. Kicked in a few bucks instantly. Makes me sick hearing about this kind of thing. Bicycles are too rad not to fuck with and yet such a precarious joy for our imperfect bodies. I hope to fuck this guy walks.
Thanks Ben. We couldn’t have said it better.
Done and done. Man, that is rough.