Jeremy Stenberg was 35 feet in the air, off his bike and had only one place to go. Down.
Two minutes into his second run in Louisville, Ky., the first stop in the 2006 Dew Tour series, Stenberg, a freestyle motocross rider, watched his season ? and possibly his career or worse ? slip away in what he considers “definitely the worst crash” of his career.
Sitting in third place after his first-round 88.50, Stenberg set out to make good on all his preparation for the 2006 season. He landed eight aerial tricks, including – ironically – two suicide no-handed back flips before attempting his ninth.
Stenberg rode up the dirt quarter pipe to gain his speed and hit the gas for what was going to be a no-footed variation. He never finished it.
“I went out there for my run, and when I hit the back of the dirt ramp, I just gassed it a little too much,” said Stenberg, now three months’ healthy and ready for the 2007 season. “Usually when you flip fast, you can catch your legs on the side panels. It just flipped so fast, my bike just went away from me and left me cat-scratching in the air.”
Stenberg?s body spun backward and landed on the front of his feet ? the only unprotected areas. The impact cost him the rest of the season.
“We protect ourselves the best way we can,” two-time Dew Cup winner Jamie Bestwick said. “What happened to Jeremy was just an unfortunate accident. But apart from being in an armored tank, I don’t think there was anything more he could have had on that day.”
A broken talus and ankle on his right leg and compound fractures in the tibia and fibula on his left leg rendered Stenberg toa wheelchair for four months.
All he could do was watch his peers improve and wonder how long it would take him to get back in the game and return to a competitive level.
After finishing second to Kenny Bartram in 2005, Stenberg intended on proving that he was the man to beat in 2006. Now, he just wants to prove himself capable of competing, as he opens the season at the AST Dew Tour’s Panasonic Open this week at the Camden Yards sports complex in Baltimore.
“I’m not really expecting anything,” said Stenberg, 25, who’s known as “Twitch,” due to his battle with Tourette?s syndrome. “I’m just here to see where I am and see what I need to do to get back on top again.”
He?s seen the replays of the crash on television, and more than a year later, he still sees it happening in his head. He fields countless questions about it. But when Stenberg gains speed for his aerials, the accident is the furthest thing from his mind.
“It definitely takes a bit to get over an injury like that,” the Winchester, Calif., native said. “But you’re not going to be learning anything if you’re out there thinking about your last crash.”
