Posted Sept. 28, 2004 Steve Wentz injury update Following Mammoth there is a lot of concern and quite a few rumors concerning our good buddy Steve Wentz's injury. Here is the real scoop, from Steve himself. We chatted Tuesday morning from his hospital room in Reno. What happened Steve doesn't remember much about practicing the Mammoth downhill course, but he thinks he overshot the first of four "Tombstone" jumps and landed on the face of the second. Many people overshot this jump; the run-in was superfast, and the jump itself was quite short. Damage report Steve broke his left cheek bone. "It's just floating there, but it's in place, so we're just gonna let it heal." Steve broke his T7-T11 vertebrae. The doctors said those are very hard to break, because you have to break the ribs first. Well, he did that too. Broken ribs and vertebrae. "It's a good thing I do all the bunny hops and dirt jumps, because they said the only thing that saved me was the strength of my back. They said a few more pounds of force or a few pounds of weakness and I would have been paralyzed." Rumors say the face guard of his D2 helmet collapsed into his face. Not true. "My helmet has a few scratches, but if I cleaned it up and put on a new clear coat, I could sell it as new." (Note: Do not buy a helmet from Steve Wentz.) Prognosis Steve gets surgery tomorrow afternoon. They'll cut away all his huge back muscles and insert two titanium rods to give the bones something to hold onto. He'll be able to walk around right away. The only limiting factor will be his pain tolerance, which is quite high, so that means Steve will be cruising Interbike with a little suitcase on wheels. This also means he'll have the patience to ride the road this winter and do a nice, systematic training program instead of goofing off all winter. All I have to say is, watch out for Steve at Sea Otter. He's already talking smack!

See more Wentzy in: The corkscrew of death Practicing for Sea Otter '04 Colorado Springs dirt jumps Porcupine Rim Trail

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