I wanted to add, that when I broke my back, I DIDN"T CRASH !!!! It was the second day of racing at northstar and the event was a Mass Start Hill CLimb Time Trial... Meaning that 50 of us racers all converged 1000 vertical ft below that base of Northstar and then the official shot off thge starting gun, we took off. The first person to the peak wins ( 8,610 ft ). It was a 7.5 mi 3,800 vertical foot gain race. With about 150 yards to go ( and in 3rd position), my back kinda snapped.

I had broken my racing bike the previous day because of a manufacturer defect and was on a spare bike that day that I wasn't as used to. apparently I had WAY over exerted myself in a way and position that my lower back wasn't used to and snapped a muscle in my lower back and broke off little end parts of a vertibrae.

At the moment of the incedent My upper body collapsed and I fell off the bike. I back became unable to support my upper body wieght and I had to be helped down to the mountain base my a teammate. I spent teh next 3 days at so much pain that I couldn't lie down or stand. so I sat in my desk and worked on a CS project.