Video: injured biker's 22km off-road

Riders-eye view of Longsons Yamaha, seconds after ther crash.

Riders-eye view of Longsons Yamaha, seconds after ther crash.

Published Sep 4, 2012

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Yamaha rider Sam Longson was just 22km from the finish of the 855km Best in the Desert enduro from Las Vegas to Reno - billed as the longest off-road race in the United States - when he lost it on some loose gravel and crash-landed on his back in the rocky desert.

Pause for some very bad language (you'll hear it on the video - don't say we didn't warn you).

The whole thing was caught on Longson's helmet camera; miraculously, it survived the crash, which happens at about 4 minutes 30 seconds into this footage.

TOUGHING IT OUT

Longson was in a lot of pain - it turned out he'd suffered three broken ribs and a partially collapsed lung - but he wasn't about to lie there feeling sorry for himself because (a) he was in the middle of nowhere and it would be hours before he was missed, and (b) before the crash he was running in the top three in his class and was up for a trophy.

Guess which reason he thought was more important. You don't have to be crazy to be an enduro racer, but it helps.

So he picked himself up, got it together and toughed it out to the finish - although, judging by the noises he was making, he was taking strain - to finish 38th overall and third in class, and collect a very hard-earned trophy. Respect.

WATCH THE HELMET-CAM VIDEO

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