All bleeding stops, one way or another.

Mountain bikers (and cyclocrossers), in sharp contrast to most roadies (present team affiliates excluded), are usually a lot of fun to hang out with.  I've often tried to put my finger on exactly what makes this true, and I'm sure there are a few key elements, but it was the one roughly described by the title of this post that pressed on me today. Those who love riding trail tend to have a pleasingly casual approach to adversity (and risk) that ensures just about whatever craziness occurs, it's gonna be a good time:  If you survive it makes for a decent story; if you don't, the story is probably much better. In either case, you're laughing all the way home.  Even if you are (this is a real list from the last few years):

• Duct taped into your bike shoes for a 7 day stage race
• Having gravel scraped out of your face with a piece of gauze
• Wearing a monocle-shaped black eye from face-planting on the end of your handle bar
• Braking by jamming your shoe in your rear tire
• Freezing your entire hand to a CO2 cartridge
• Falling in a river on a 25-degree day
• Bending back a derailleur hanger with a rock
• Riding singletrack all morning with only one crankarm

Or, as today might have it, finding out how fast you can ride a flat downhill on your way home from the woods:



It's cool, he races cross...