August 18 2013 Clipped a sapling with my handle bars during a race over corrected and launched myself over the bars face first into a bigger tree. or so they tell me, I have to take their word for it as I have no memory of the actual crash.

Broken nose broken zygoid (sp) hair line fracture to cheek bone hair line fracture to lower jaw, stitches to the inside of left cheek to sew it back together again. Between 35 and 40 stitches to sew my upper and lower lips back together again . and last but not least 4 cracked vertebrate in my upper back 4,5,6,and 7. 3 1/2 days in a trauma center 8 weeks off work 10 1/2 weeks without being permitted to touch a bike. 20 sessions with a physical therapist . Still not back to riding single track yet.

But still planning on racing come spring!

The picture of the tree is not a deer rub, its body impact damage