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Joel Reichenberger's column appears Sundays in the Steamboat Pilot & Today. Contact him at 871-4253 or e-mail jreichenberger@steamboatpilot.com.

Steamboat Springs — Realistically, Essam Welch had no choice but to "get back up on that horse."

Welch and his bike are a fixture in Steamboat Springs, no matter the season. He doesn't even own a car, happily pedaling day in and day out from his home to his job at Orange Peel in downtown Steamboat.

He rides his bike to meet up with friends, and he rides to the grocery store.

His favorite mode of transportation gave him one heck of a buck, though.

Welch sustained such serious injuries in a September fall that he had to spend a week in a Durango hospital and only recently returned to Orange Peel.

Riding Sept. 16 on a pre-ride of the course for the SingleSpeed World Championships in Durango, Welch came up on a small ledge on the unfamiliar trail.

"As I got up onto an elevated section, I stalled," he said. "I began to lose my balance, and I ditched the bike and jumped down the side."

There was little in the direction he leapt other than a steep slope. Still, he managed to catch himself and keep from tumbling down. He didn't prevent serious injury, however. He landed in a squat and as his feet impacted, his knees flew upward and smashed into his face.

The damage was severe, and friends and fellow riders raced to help, including Steamboat biker Ethan Johnson.

"We had to decide whether to wait for search and rescue or climb down to the trailhead," Welch said. "I got up, and we started walking, someone else with my bike."

Being on the road to safety did little to soothe Welch's sudden and intense pain. His eyes were so swollen he could barely see, and he still doesn't know exactly who helped him down from the trail.

He even hopped back on his bike to coast down several easy, straight sections simply in an effort to reach the trailhead faster.

Finally, a search and rescue team dispatched to help caught up to them 400 yards from the parking lot, and they whisked him to the local hospital.

Things didn't get much better there.

One week, six hours of surgery and eight titanium plates in his face later, he finally came back to Steamboat.

First thing he did, of course, was hop on his bike.

"I had to ride down to Orange Peel and let the guys know how I was doing," he said.

Besides one soon-to-be-repaired chipped tooth, there's not a lot of evidence that he spent a week in the hospital.

Welch said he had health insurance several years ago when he broke his collarbone during a Town Challenge race, and he still had the self-purchased insurance last month when he needed it the most.

"If I could encourage anyone to do anything based on this, it would be to always acknowledge the risks they take and to prepare for the possibilities," he said.