As crashes go, this one takes a long time to unwind but you know from the beginning that it’s going to end in mayhem. And when the inevitable comes, it does so with a bang. It’s quite impressive, really, the contrast between the slow-motion buildup and the instant violent denouement.

What’s interesting about this video, aside from the drama of the ending, is the animus it’s generating among people who are commenting on it or posting it or sending it around — a shower of venom and bile that’s just plain sad to see. It’s true that the rider, who appears to be a teenage girl (though it’s ambiguous), is over their head on this section of track. However, that stretch of trail is just plain gnarly: It’s deep and soft and anyone’s who ever ridden such conditions knows it’s difficult to restart once you’ve lost your momentum. And except for the brutal Maytagging at the end, I’ve experienced every element of this fail personally: the bogging in moondust, the wrestling match to regain forward progress, the difficulty pulling the front wheel up, the mixed-up braking, and even the crotch ride on the top tube while my feet flail for purchase. I haven’t strung them together like this, but that might be due to dumb luck as much as anything.

A couple of months ago, the New York Times published a story entitled “What If the Secret to Success Is Failure?” that looked a movement within some schools to focus on the teaching of character and the importance of (sometimes literally) dusting yourself off and tackling things anew. If you’re paying attention, you’ll learn far more from your mistakes than your successes, and yet we don’t recognize or celebrate failure as a building block of growth and accomplishment. Instead, especially in the anonymity of the internet, we kill the wounded and then spit on them, too.

Maybe this mountain biker shouldn’t have been attempting this race. Perhaps the whole thing was outside their current skill level. Or maybe they just choked in a tough section and suffered the consequences with cameras running to capture the whole thing. Either way, I admire the fact that they were going for it and not that they failed.

Tagged as: competition, fail, mountain biking