WEST BEND, WI—An Iowa man who repeatedly told friends he’s “basically Rampage-ready” fractured his collarbone Saturday on the second jump of a blue trail at Trash Mountain Bike Park, a bike park famously constructed on a former landfill and known primarily for an incident last year where a man minimally scraped his arm on a bush, contracted MRSA from the hill, and died later in agonizing pain from sepsis and organ failure.
The rider, identified as Chad Brosley, 35, of Davenport, had reportedly ridden one “badass trail” prior to this incident—a flow line locals there call “pretty advanced” but riders in Utah classify as a warmup and Whistler would label “the thing toddlers ride before naptime.”
Saturday marked the first time Brosley had ever worn a helmet, friends said. Brosley, who cites his experience in Class B motocross as the reason he “doesn’t need all that mountain bike nerd stuff,” stated earlier in the day that helmets are “for pussies who don’t know how to ride.”
His helmet, which minimized the massive TBI he would have incurred without it, did little to prevent the collar bone injury, which occurred when Brosley misjudged a small tabletop on the park’s blue run, Landfill Lullaby, landing directly on his shoulder, which immediately detonated like a sack of chalk.
“It was like watching a moose try to ice skate,” said rider Eric Noll, who witnessed the crash from the lift. “Except the moose thinks it’s Red Bull Rampage royalty and calls everyone ‘brother’ every 30 seconds.”
Brosley’s friend, Eli Chadcurst, the one he invited himself along with, was forced to shuttle the injured rider to the emergency room, ruining in a predictable fashion what should have been a full day of riding with friends who had traveled up to three hours for the trip.
“I knew this would happen,” Chadcurst said. “This is the same guy who once said Whistler is ‘overrated and easy’ after watching a 4-year-old’s Go-Pro video of Shady Acres.”
Riders who made the trip expressed frustration at losing their riding partner to what they described as “the most statistically likely injury in mountain biking history.”
Doctors confirmed Brosley sustained a fractured collarbone but is expected to make a full recovery. Witnesses and friends alike stated with absolute certainty that he learned nothing from the incident.
“He was showing the X-ray tech videos of Semenuk and saying, ‘This is basically me but without the filmer budget,’” said Chadcurst. “At one point he said he could probably bunny hop the hospital gurney if he wasn’t hurt.”
Friends close to the group said privately that this was the final straw after years of Brosley being unbearably cocky, annoying, and generally insufferable. “It’s not his riding skills. It’s his personality. He’s like a toddler with five-o’clock shadow who’s never been told ‘no,’ just running around in a Monster Energy hat saying things that make absolutely no sense,” said a fellow rider who asked to remain anonymous.
