1 hour ago, nigel dabster said:

err is not breaking your back serious?

I never said it wasn't? Though it has obviously affected his riding it wasn't debilitating enough to end his career this time. 

I broke my back in a car accident when I was just 17, I was left paralysed for just short of 6 months. Luckily I made a full recovery and (touch wood) it has had no lasting debilitating effects. Maybe when I'm older (from what the doctor told me) I may suffer with problems around where the break happened. 

Bou has recovered and yes it will affect his confidence and probably made him realize that he is not invincible. 

I think trials is such a confidence thing that anything that effects this has an adverse effect that is very hard to measure. His injury will have effected his physical and mental training this year and the injury must be in the back of his mind.

I'm sure some of the things we see him do on video etc is as much confidence building as it is practice. I also think it is physiological towards the other riders - when they get to master what he was doing last year he has a new trick to show off. Knowing Toni is a little on the back foot is also likely to increase the motivation/confidence of the other riders as well making it a bit of a double whammy  

I will speculate that because of the type of person Toni is he will push through and start winning again soon and it will be behind him faster than it seems.

Yes it has affected him, yes this will cause the others to try harder, and it will be a bit more up hill than in the past but with how he is riding I am not convinced he is done just yet. 

My 2 cents.   

On 12/06/2018 at 1:11 PM, Intotrials said:

But I don't think Bou is done just yet, failing a serious injury I think

But you said this ?

9 hours ago, nigel dabster said:

But you said this ?

Yes but I meant it as a career ending injury. Obviously breaking your back is very serious, as I well know. 

so let me get this 100% clear @Intotrials. Is breaking 3 vertebrae serious or not?

Can we dispense with the absolutes? I think in this particular case, it wasn't. He was back on the bike within a month, performing at the same level just with reduced fitness. I think it's fair to give him a good period of time to overcome any lingering physical issues and at the same time reclaim full confidence, which always takes a hit after any injury. 

On 6/23/2018 at 7:35 AM, nigel dabster said:

so let me get this 100% clear @Intotrials. Is breaking 3 vertebrae serious or not?

I don't understand what you are getting at???? 

The context I was talking about was career ending injury .  Breaking your back or any bone is a serious injury, but he was not permanently injured or debilitated. I broke my back in a very similar way to Bou, in fact probably a little worse because I was paralyzed for a short period, but made a full recovery within 6 months. Like heffergm mentions, Bou is back on his bike and performing almost back to full potential. Clearly the back injury was not as serious as it could have been. 

A month! I bought a new Fantic 307 in 1990  it broke my heart, couldn't ride for over a decade.