It was the kind of steady progression he has been building for years. Back in April he told me, \u201ceach year you learn a bit more. Especially at the world cups. It\u2019s a different style of racing. It\u2019s chaotic. You go from racing one or two guys in a Canada Cup to racing ten or more at once.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the end of 2025 he had proved he belonged in that chaos. He took sixth place at the Canadian Championships in XCO.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d he said in the spring when I asked if going pro was the goal. \u201cThat\u2019s the dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then a normal training ride in North Carolina changed everything.<\/p>\n
A familiar road, a motorist he never saw<\/p>\n
Clark is finishing his media and business degree at Brevard College in North Carolina, a school known for its cycling program. The crash happened there, on a road loop he has ridden \u201ca million times.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a normal training ride. It\u2019s a straight section of road,\u201d he says. \u201cI was going like 42 kmph, I was going pretty quick. The road was kind of a false flat downhill.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a car sitting patiently behind him, waiting for traffic to clear. Behind that car, an older driver in his 70s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe car directly behind me made this pass as normal cars would and just crossed over into the left lane and went around me,\u201d Clark says. \u201cThe car behind that car just maybe accelerated forward straight. He didn\u2019t realize I was there until the last minute and ran into me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark never saw it coming.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just riding and then all of a sudden I am bucked like I\u2019m on a horse or something. I go kind of flying into the road,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t even see the car, because he was behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The impact launched him onto the hood. His bike went underneath.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said that I went up on his hood,\u201d Clark says. \u201cI got some really gnarly road rash on my butt and side up to my shoulder, so I think I just like launched off the car, landed in the seated position. I never rotated or rolled. Just landed on my butt on the pavement and slid for a good amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The road bike did not survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fractured two vertebrae\u201d<\/p>\n
At first, adrenaline hid the damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe adrenaline was so strong that I didn\u2019t feel much, for the first 30 minutes,\u201d Clark says. \u201cFirst thing is like making sure my arms are still working, make sure my legs are still working, and then I was like, OK, all the major stuff is fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
He even stood up, then sat in the back of the driver\u2019s car while they waited for the ambulance. In hindsight he laughs at the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce I laid down on the stretcher, I didn\u2019t move from that position for four days,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Scans at the hospital in Brevard revealed what he already suspected.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually fractured two vertebrae,\u201d Clark says. \u201cThe first one was T7. It was a compression fracture, but it was small, it was 10 per cent compression, which they considered to be insignificant.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second fracture was far more serious.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then I fractured my T12. The fracture went all the way through,\u201d he says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t displaced, but because the fracture went all the way through, it meant it was extremely unstable.\u201d<\/p>\n
At first doctors debated whether to brace and wait or operate.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could not do surgery and then wear a brace for like two or three months,\u201d Clark says of those early conversations. \u201cAnd then hope it heals. But if it turns out at the end of those two-to-three months it didn\u2019t heal properly, you\u2019d have to do surgery anyways, and it could be much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
After an MRI, the decision was made.<\/p>\n
Rods, screws and walking the next day<\/p>\n
Surgeons fused his spine two vertebrae above and two below the break.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, they put in rods and screws. So basically they go in and they attached rods and screws to just kind of secure those bones together and then they put in the bone graft,\u201d he says. \u201cOver time, probably like three-to-six months, the bone will fuse into one bone, and then once that finishes, those rods are actually kind of useless.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is only two weeks out from surgery, but recovery has already surprised him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was actually walking on day one after surgery, which was pretty, crazy,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery day since then, it\u2019s gotten easier and easier to do stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now he wears a bulky brace all day and sleeps without it at night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not on any painkillers, able to fully walk around. I can walk quite a bit. I can walk two hours in a day,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not allowed to bend over, lift anything over ten pounds, and any kind of twisting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sleeping is the hardest part.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the kind of person who normally moves around a lot when I sleep and I just can\u2019t do that,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ll wake up in the middle of the night, kind of sore, so I\u2019ll have to put the brace on, get up, and I\u2019ll literally just walk around the house for ten minutes and then go back to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n
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