“It was like somebody had shot him,” says Simon Fletcher, describing the moment his son Lewis crashed on a tarmac BMX track a year and a half ago. First he heard the bang of the fork snapping, then came the sight of the limp body on the floor. “Even now, just remembering…” he continues, catching his throat as he speaks. “We thought the worst.”
Simon was coaching the pump track session when the incident happened. Lewis had ridden the course in Gravesend plenty of times before, but on this run, three quarters of the way round, his bike collapsed beneath him at 45kph, and he barrelled head first into the ground. Within moments, the emergency services turned up in an ambulance and a fire engine – the latter only needed for the most serious call-outs.
