We catch up with Dirt Norco rider Casey Brown after an injury she took the Whip Off Worlds at Crankworx by storm! Here’s Casey.
Post op Instagram
On the 13 of July I crashed off a rock drop at National champs and broke my collar one in 2 places so I couldn’t race and defend my title. luckily I got into surgery on the 15th with the best athlete surgeon in the country, Dr Heard operated on me knowing I was going to compete in 4 weeks so he put 8 screws in instead of 6 and a bigger plate so it would be stronger faster.
Unfortunately this meant that I was going to miss 2 world cups: Vallnord Andorra and Mont saint Anne, my goal was to be ready to race at Crankworx. So when I got home from Banff I was pretty much straight to massage and physiotherapy working on my injures. It was so nice to be at home for my recovery with all the support from my community and family, I kept active with the trainer and also hiking and swimming every day with my dog Snuff, after 2 weeks I got the OK from my physio to ride my XC bike on easy trails and by the third week I was on my DH bike, just in time for Crankworx.
I was told by my surgeon that I can race but I absolutely can not crash. My first race at Crankworx was the Garbanzo DH, I had one day on my bike the day before and it was spent mostly fixing and replacing parts since I hadn’t touched it since my crash. with only 2 practice runs in the bag I was happy to get 4th place. My next race was the Air DH. my strategy was to do a minimum amount of practice runs because my shoulder was nowhere near healed yet and it would get pretty sore, so again I only put in 2 runs before my race, I pulled a 5th place and I was pleased with that. I also entered the Official Whip Off world champs which is held on the infamous Crabapple hits. it was one of the funnest days on my bike this year such a good time, the best part was following Geoff Gulevich throwing down the biggest corked out back flips I’ve ever seen while I was in the air at the same time as him…best view in the house! I took 1st place on the chicks side and made bank with $100 cash money baby! Next was the Canadian open, I rode the track a couple times and decided against racing, the hits were too hard for my bones at that point. It was so nice to be a spectator and enjoy the show.
Crankworx was over and it now time to get my coconuts in a row for world championships in South Africa. I heard it was a super pedally course so I spoke with Ben about running a 650B we decided to give it a go, since Norco had built a prototype frame for me to try. I’m now in Petermaritzburg SA 1 week from race day. y’all wish me luck!
