Slaven racing downhill. Photo Courtesy of the Kona Factory Team
Several days ago, cyclocrosser-turned-enduro racer Matthew Slaven was shot in a park in Santa Cruz during a mugging. Slaven, currently an enduro racer for Kona, has been a staple of the Northwest cyclocross scene for years, along with his wife Dani Dance, one of the promoters and founders of the first-ever SSCXWC in Portland in 2008. The two currently reside in the cyclocross hotbed of Portland, Oregon, and BikePortland wrote that he used to work at Bike Gallery but currently works as a sales rep for Continental Tires. Though not racing cyclocross regularly, Slaven occasionally makes an appearance in the mud, like at the 2011 SSCXWC in San Francisco.
As both a racer and a worker in the bike industry, Slaven was in Santa Cruz for a meeting with Easton-Bell Sports, who later released a statement saying that he was shot in the shoulder while walking through a local park.
According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Slaven was walking with a group of friends when he was approached and subsequently robbed of his wallet and then shot. The article goes on to say that Slaven’s injures were “not life-threatening, and he remained in a Santa Clara County hospital on Tuesday. ‘He’s still in the hospital, still has a bullet lodged in him, but is doing well,’ said Cory Blackwood, a representative of Washington-based Kona Bicycle Co., in a private Facebook message on Tuesday.”
Bike Magazine wrote that a text message went out to Slaven’s friends saying that he would recover, and “He’s good, just bummed about the races he’s going to miss.”
We’re bummed as well, and wish him a speedy recovery! You can wish him well yourself on the Kona Facebook post here.
