It’s what we do
It’s a curious thing about adventure riding that it doesn’t need any real risk for the rider to be participating at the very highest levels of the sport.
In any kind of racing the need to ride fast means big risk, no matter how good the rider is. Road racers are at the sharp end as far as out-and-out speed goes, and anyone who’s raced at club level – where tracks seldom have the runoffs, air fences and other safety gear that feature in world championship rounds on TV – will know a rider doesn’t have to be able to manage stellar speeds to face real injury and bike destruction. The motocross guys have the track itself as a serious obstacle in addition to their speed, and the supercross competitors have the riskiest combination of all. They need to be riding as fast as they humanly can on tracks made to be dangerous. Even the trials guys will need to take risks if they want to perform well in their sport.