IT can't be easy trying to be feminine while picking bits of gravelout of your face

There is seriously something psychologically wrong with this girl, and
many who continue to pursue mountain biking incurring such severe
injuries. She is young, right now, but all her injuries will be
catching up to her when she becomes a bit older, in the form of
arthritis, among other debilitating medical problems. Sadly, this daft
young woman will be a "very old woman" before her time.

It’s tough being a ‘girl’ downhiller

Richard Winton

10 Jun 2011

IT can’t be easy trying to be feminine while picking bits of gravel
out of your face. The observation sparks a snort of laughter from Bex
Reilly, followed by a pause as the 19-year-old ponders the difficulty
of the situation in which she finds herself.

As a mountain biker, she has had her share of disfigurements;
agonising tendinitis in her knees, strained ligaments in one of those
joints, an over-rotation of a shoulder that left it an inch lower than
it should have been and so many haematomas that she has given up
keeping count.

Indeed, just last week she was rushed to hospital with a broken wrist
and suspected broken leg after losing control of her bike on a run at
Glencoe and falling almost two-and-a-half metres, clattering though a
small canyon of rocks. Safe to say touching up her make-up was not
Reilly’s primary concern.

Yet for all that, the Galloway teenager cites track sprinter Victoria
Pendleton and skeleton racer Amy Williams as inspirations, their
ability to retain their womanliness amid brutal sporting environments
something she yearns to replicate.

“You’ll be at a race with 300 guys and 10 girls and sometimes you
are considered one of the guys, which is fine, but I’m a girl,�
she protests. “I was always sort of a tomboy but as I’ve got older
it’s changed. I’ve become more confident because of cycling and
now I like to get dressed up and wear make-up and that can be lost
because it’s all muddy but it’s important to try to stay feminine
because I’m a girl and it’s who I am.�
"You learn from every crash – how to fall and react – and you have to
accept it will happen"

And, as a girl, Reilly fiercely defends her right to cry. Lying amid
the rocks and dirt at Glencoe after crashing in the third round of the
British National Series, experience told her she had not broken a leg
but the pain and swelling suggested her wrist was fractured.

As she was stretchered into an ambulance, fears about missing last
weekend’s UCI World Cup event at Fort William swirling around her
mind, she maintained her composure but admits bursting into tears when
the diagnosis was delivered.

Reilly describes the incident as a “big scare� but her fear is not
entirely founded on the physical discomfort. She is hurting, too, that
the incident prevented her from making the cup at Fort William,
finishing 33rd in an event in which she probably should not have
ridden given the wrist injury and massive haematoma on her leg.

“I’d put so much into that one race and to mess it up the weekend
before was gutting,� she admits. “You know you’re going to get a
bad one eventually and I remember my first major crash; I caught a
pedal on a rock, went through a wall and flipped about 15m just
missing an oak tree. I just treated it as part of the sport but it was
the start of me realising just how painful and brutal the sport can
be. You learn from every crash – how to fall and react –– and you
have to accept that it will happen or you would be too scared to race.â
€�

That might have been one of her earliest lessons, but Reilly’s
education is still ongoing. With this her first season as an elite
rider and member of the British downhill squad, she has been exposed
to a whole new level of competition but is thriving on the challenge
of continuing what has already been a rapid ascent since she first
raced in 2008.

Having always ridden as a child – “my Barbie bike when I was six was
my favouriteâ€� – she and a couplle of friends from the village of
Auchencairn attended cross-country skills days run by Reilly’s
father but decided downhill was more glamorous. Exhilarated by the
speed and danger, Reilly rode recreationally for 18 months before
being talent-spotted by the national coach and welcomed into the youth
development programme and rising through the ranks from there.

“I remember the first time I went on a downhill bike with the full-
face helmet, goggles,� she says. “I had so much fun even though it
was only a couple of minutes and that fun is still there now even
though I’m riding competitively and have to try to balance the
budget.�

As a student, money is never far from her mind. Indeed, Reilly has had
to abandon plans to compete in tomorrow’s UCI World Cup event in
Austria because injury to one of her team-mates makes her subsequently
increased share of the petrol money – flyying is too expensive –
prohibitive. Instead, she will be in Dunkeldd for a Scottish Series
race and preserving her pennies for trips later this summer to France
and Italy.

Were it not a bursary from the University of Strathclyde, Reilly
admits she would have been unable to continue competing, but instead
she is able to continue her studies in product design as a distraction
from the intensity of training and racing.

With only three or four girls on the course, she finds herself in a
familiar position but if downhill cycling is unable to impinge on her
quest for femininity it is unlikely that an engineering degree will be
able to manufacture any insurmountable barriers.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/...ller-1.1106130

On Jun 10, 3:24*pm, Mike Vandeman wrote:


How was jail?

"Kayak 44" wrote in message
...

How was jail?

Why not tell us since you apparently know the scene well.

--
Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

On Jun 11, 5:36*pm, "Edward Dolan" wrote:
"Kayak 44" wrote in message

...

How was jail?

Why not tell us since you apparently know the scene well.

--
Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

Hey Mike, how was jail?

"Kayak 44" wrote in message
...
On Jun 11, 5:36 pm, "Edward Dolan" wrote:
"Kayak 44" wrote in message

...

How was jail?

Why not tell us since you apparently know the scene well.

Hey Mike, how was jail?

Why don't you tell us since you obviously are the homo. Do you prefer to
suck cock or take it in the asshole?

--
Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

On 6/11/2011 11:33 PM, Edward Dolan wrote:
"Kayak wrote in message
...
On Jun 11, 5:36 pm, "Edward wrote:
"Kayak wrote in message

...

How was jail?

Why not tell us since you apparently know the scene well.

Hey Mike, how was jail?

Why don't you tell us since you obviously are the homo. Do you prefer to
suck cock or take it in the asshole?

Dear Ed,

A gentleman does not ask such questions.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731,-83.985007
I am a vehicular cyclist.

"Tºm Shermªn °_°" " wrote in message
...
On 6/11/2011 11:33 PM, Edward Dolan wrote:
"Kayak wrote in message
[...]

How was jail?

Why not tell us since you apparently know the scene well.

Hey Mike, how was jail?

Why don't you tell us since you obviously are the homo. Do you prefer to
suck cock or take it in the asshole?

Dear Ed,

A gentleman does not ask such questions.

But I am not dealing with a gentleman. I am dealing with a rogue and a
scoundrel. If you don't speak their language, they will not know what you
are talking about. That us why you fail so miserably with everyone who is
NOT a gentleman. Civility is wasted on swine like Kayak 44.

--
Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

On Jun 12, 1:02*pm, "Edward Dolan" wrote:
"Tºm Shermªn °_°" " wrote in ... On 6/11/2011 11:33 PM, Edward Dolan wrote:
"Kayak *wrote in message

[...]

How was jail?

Why not tell us since you apparently know the scene well.

Hey Mike, how was jail?

Why don't you tell us since you obviously are the homo. Do you prefer to
suck cock or take it in the asshole?

Dear Ed,

A gentleman does not ask such questions.

How would Tom Sherman know what gentlemen do??? Here's another classic
Tom Sherman hypocrisy:

"When you cannot answer the argument, attack the man." That phrase
sums up mountain bikers, who are incapable of defending their selfish,
destructive, disgusting "sport", and find it much easier to attack and
lie about their critics.

But I am not dealing with a gentleman. I am dealing with a rogue and a
scoundrel. If you don't speak their language, they will not know what you
are talking about. That us why you fail so miserably with everyone who is
NOT a gentleman. Civility is wasted on swine like Kayak 44.

--
Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

On Jun 12, 12:33*am, "Edward Dolan" wrote:
"Kayak 44" wrote in message

...
On Jun 11, 5:36 pm, "Edward Dolan" wrote:

"Kayak 44" wrote in message

....

How was jail?

Why not tell us since you apparently know the scene well.
Hey Mike, how was jail?

Why don't you tell us since you obviously are the homo. Do you prefer to
suck cock or take it in the asshole?

Stop projecting, Ed. It's embarrassing.

"Kayak 44" wrote in message
...
On Jun 12, 12:33 am, "Edward Dolan" wrote:
"Kayak 44" wrote in message

...
On Jun 11, 5:36 pm, "Edward Dolan" wrote:

"Kayak 44" wrote in message

...

How was jail?

Why not tell us since you apparently know the scene well.
Hey Mike, how was jail?

Why don't you tell us since you obviously are the homo. Do you prefer to
suck cock or take it in the asshole?

Stop projecting, Ed. It's embarrassing.

The only projector here is you. Now go **** yourself and quit bothering the
honorable members of these noble newsgroups.

--
Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota