It is both oppressive and gratifying to read Lorraine Truong's occasional blog entries and posts. As a reminder, she was one of the best Swiss riders in the Enduro World Series. At BMC, she was employed 50 percent as a rider and 50 percent as an engineer. After suffering a concussion, she didn't give herself enough rest - or was simply extremely unlucky - she crashed again and suffered a traumatic brain injury with permanent consequences.

For six years, she has been fighting to regain lost abilities and at the same time to accept her situation as it is and make the best of it. She once described the state of her brain as that of an old, broken-down car that still rides but howls and rattles. She can only partially control the movements of her legs and finds it difficult to keep her balance and concentrate. She is often plagued by headaches and extreme tiredness.

For a while, she tried to learn to ride again on a dirt bike without pedals. "Unfortunately, it was very difficult for my brain, I felt sick and could only roll for a few minutes," she says. Her torso and thighs are not stable enough, but a bucket seat like on her sit-ski or in a wheelchair allows her to do sports. In the past two years, she has focused on wheelchair freestyle and even became runner-up world champion.

The adaptive mountain bike

Around the same time that Lorraine's racing career came to a dramatic end, engineer Alex Desmond in England began developing a mountain bike that people with physical disabilities could ride. The reason for this was that his friend had suffered a stroke, which had led him to mountain biking a few years earlier.

Lorraine had been friends with the employees of Orange Bikes in Switzerland for some time. Through a mutual acquaintance, they finally found Alex Desmond, who had previously been working on his Adaptive Bike at his own company. The Swiss woman became the first test rider to accompany the development from the final prototype to the production-ready Orange AD3.

What Alex has developed is not an entire mountain bike, but a new front end that can in principle be combined with any frame. The front of the bike has two forks and wheels next to each other, which allows people like Loraine to keep their balance. You can also sit on this bike when stationary without tipping over.

Instead of a saddle, the bike has a bucket seat - just what Lorraine needs to sit stably on the bike. Thanks to Alex Desmond's design, the three-wheeled bike can be cornered and both wheels remain in contact with the ground on traverses (up to 40% lateral gradient). Even if the two front wheels are at different heights, the handlebars remain stable.The frame of the Orange Phase e-mountain bike proved to be a good fit. Alex only replaced the motor with one that can be operated using a "throttle" on the handlebars. This makes it possible for mountain bikers who have little or no power on the pedals to move forward in the first place.Lorraine Truong is said to have felt so comfortable straight away that she simply rode away from her companions on her first attempt. "Then she wanted to slide through a bend. But because we swapped the brake levers in the UK compared to the continent, Lorraine did a massive endo turn instead," says Alex. He was quite startled when he ran up to her and found her with a big grin on her face. Nevertheless, he asked her to take it easy for the time being.

"Back on the bike, I realized what I had lost."

As a result, Alex Desmond developed his adaptive bike, the Orange AD3, to production readiness. And Lorraine now has a mountain bike that she can ride on trails again, something she hadn't done since 2015. Nevertheless, the comeback also brought new problems. "At first I was thrilled to be back on the bike. But after a few days, I realized that it wasn't the same as before. I became even more aware of what I had lost. Fortunately, these moments are becoming rarer, I'm getting better and better at riding the bike and I just want to ride it again and again."

When asked what is technically the most difficult, Lorraine replies: "Once I've picked up some speed, it's pretty easy. It's a mix of sit-ski and bike and I have experience in both. It's difficult to roll slowly and stop without falling over. In the meantime, that also comes naturally." As in the past, the Jura native loves steep terrain, roots and technical passages. "Only jumping is quite difficult."

In recent years, wheelchair freestyle has been the activity that has brought Lorraine the most happiness. She wants to stay true to this sport. But her new bike has one big advantage: "I can go for a ride from home at any time, even on my own, and I don't have to be taken to a skate park. I also get tired less quickly." However, she still wants to satisfy her desire to compete in a wheelchair. "As a discipline, wheelchair freestyle is already more developed. It is even possible that it will be included in the Paralympic Games. That would certainly be a big goal for me."