Acute injuries in cross-country and downhill off-road bicycle racing

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate injury patterns at three major off-road bicycle races in the Western United States in 1995. All cyclists forced out of the cross-country (CC) and downhill (DH) competitions due to injury were examined and interviewed. The overall injury rates were 0.49% (20/4074) for the CC and 0.51% (11/2158) for the DH event. In the CC there were 0.37 injured cyclists for every 100 h of racing time versus 4.34 injured cyclists/100 h in the DH (P = 0.01). Injury rates in the CC were higher for women than for men (1.05% vs 0.40%, P = 0.04; 0.75/100 h vs 0.31/100 h, P = 0.01). Injured CC cyclists who fell forward over their handlebars had higher mean injury severity scores (3.0 vs 1.3, P = 0.01) and required more emergency room visits (6/100 vs 1/10, P = 0.02) than cyclists who fell off their bicycles (5/6 vs 5/14, P = 0.05) and were taken to the hospital (4/6 vs 3/14, P = 0.05) more often than men. These data suggest that 1) the risk of being injured during a race is similar in the CC And DH events, 2) the long-term risk may be greater to DH racers than to CC competitors, 3) the severity of injury is greater when a CC cyclists falls forward off the bicycle, and 4) women CC competitors are more likely to fall forward off their bicycles and be injured than men.

Recreational mountain biking injuries

“…This is twice the proportion reported in the early MTBing literature7 and is three times the amount seen in soccer injuries 18. A reported LOC/Concussion rate of 13% (or 0.2 per 1000 biker exposures) is similar to that reported by competitive MTBing studies 2 3. When comparing this head injury rate with other popular sports, it is similar to that seen in rugby union training but is 60 times less than that seen during professional rugby union 19.…”

“…Studies looking at indoor and outdoor soccer have found injury rates of between 4.0 and 18.0 injuries per 1000 player exposures,13–15 while rates in competitive rugby union often exceed 100.0 per 1000 player games 16. Even the injury rate in competitive Downhill MTBing (43.4/1000 biker hours) compares favourably with the injury rate found in competitive BMX cycling (1190/1000 biker hours) at the peak of its popularity 2 17…”

“…The first substantial prospective study of competitive bikers was conducted by Kronisch, Pfeiffer and Chow in 1996 2. They looked at injury rates, types, mechanisms and severity across the two popular disciplines of Cross-country and Downhill MTBing.…”

“…Early MTBing injury research carried out in the United States analysed injury patterns in competitive mountain bikers at race meetings 2 3. A multi-centre Canadian study analysed injuries requiring Trauma Centre admission but excluded injuries managed on an outpatient basis 4…”

Occupational injuries among Boston bicycle messengers

“…Kronisch et al [1996b] reported that 0.37 cyclists are injured for 100 hr of cross-country off-road racing and 4.34 cyclists are injured for 100 hr of down hill racing events (racing mountain bikes down ski slopes during the summer months). The rate for injuries leading to days away from work among this cohort of messengers was 0.024 cyclists injured per 100 hr of messenger-work hours.…”