Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 12:40:50 EDT

Subject: Re: "Mountain biker dies from fall off cliff"

In the "for what its worth" column....

My friend Barry Fountain ... about 4 years ago was taking a "beginner's" course in mountain biking through a county program outside of Richmond, VA.

By 11 am he had broken his neck when he hit a small tree root and went over the handlebars into a dry streambed. He was in his mid-40's and not a wildman by any stretch of the imagination.

For four years he could not move anything below the neck as he lay in a nursing home bed in Roanoke, VA and battled bedsores, fluid on the lungs, etc.

Finally in year 4 he settled his personal injury suit and was able to afford to move from the nursing home into his own home in Richmond, VA.

Within about two weeks he was dead ... died last November, 2004.

Point is ... even the "easy" biking stuff can put you in a state worse than death, and then kill you.

Thom Savage

Fredericksburg, VA