Claudio Calouri talks pump tracks, concussion, and why he didn’t do the course preview at Fort William

For many mountain bikers and fans of the the sport, Claudio Caluori won’t need an introduction. Thanks to his hilarious course preview videos (many of which have gone viral online) and his entertaining race commentary, the Swiss downhiller has become synonymous with the World Cup series.

During one of Claudio’s more recent course preview videos at the brutally rocky Losinj race course in Croatia, Claudio suffered a heavy crash and a mild concussion, which put him in hospital for 24 hours under observation. Having experienced concussions before, there didn’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary for Claudio. About a month later the headaches weren’t going away though, and after experiencing a particular bought of dizziness, Claudio decided to head to the doctors to get things checked out. It was damn lucky he did, as it turned out he had an excessive build up of blood in his skull, which was putting pressure on his brain – causing the headaches and dizziness. Claudio took an emergency trip to the hospital, where he had holes drilled into his head to drain out the excess blood before it caused irreversible damage. Check out the Instagram posts below to see the scars – gnarly!

While he’s currently in the all-clear and is back on the World Cup circuit at Fort William, Claudio won’t be doing the course preview. In fact, he likely won’t riding a bike for a little while. He will be commentating the race this weekend, and of course he’s still on duty with the Scott-Velosolutions team with Brendog and Gaetan Vigé.

We caught up with Claudio to chat to him about the crash, his recovery, and why he has a very valid excuse for any commentary mishaps this weekend;

We honestly could have talked to Claudio all-day long, but he’s a busy man and even without his usual course preview, he has plenty on over the weekend with the Scott-Velosolutions team. He also has a lot on with the Red Bull Pumptrack World Championship series, and for those of you who consider yourself pretty handy on the pumptrack, there’s a qualifying round in Glasgow on the 30th of June. More details here.

We’re looking forward to hearing Claudio back in the commentary box this weekend, and here’s hoping we see him back on a bike soon!

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changing the matrix….. it‘s not as easy as they show it in the movie. it takes more than a #redpill . but i‘ll get there, and those agents better get ready! #followthewhiterabbit

A post shared by Claudio Caluori (@claudiocaluori) on May 21, 2018 at 7:13am PDT

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjU_v9ylpIp/?taken-by=claudiocaluori