Dem bones, dem bones

[LongSprint]

Another spate of broken bones in the last couple of Tour stages. Perhaps its time for professional teams to put their riders through some additional training?

 

[Cerberus]

Another spate of broken bones in the last couple of Tour stages. Perhaps its time for professional teams to put their riders through some additional training?

I don't think there's any way to lean to fall from a bike, it happens to fast and your freedom of movement is limited by the bike.

 

[forty four]

you dont mean that knowing/training how to crash thing right lol? crashes in general are not controlled events otherwise it would not be a crash. there are times when you know your going to go down or not going to make a turn but for the most part it is utterly uncontrollable.

 

[scribe]

If there is any training that can guarantee I won't die, please advise.

 

[forty four]

tuck and roll lol stupid maybe in a perfect world or orchestrated. generally not useful. i do wonder about bone density of the skinnier guys bones should not break so easy look at vdv wtf. maybe some weight bearing excersise in the off season.

 

[Cerberus]

tuck and roll lol stupid maybe in a perfect world or orchestrated. generally not useful. i do wonder about bone density of the skinnier guys bones should not break so easy look at vdv wtf. maybe some weight bearing excersise in the off season.

I'm not sure how much it would help, but even if you did as a professional cyclist you don't want strong and by extension heavy bones. Any weight that doesn't provide a comparable amount of power is a millstone around the neck of any GC hopes you have, or even your ability to be a proper domesticate. even on flat stages extra weight drags you down.

 

[Black-Balled]

Tuck and roll? Jeeziz!!!

 

[Master50]

Good idea but...

Memory being volatile, I cannot recall all the details but I read about an experiment to help reduce injuries amongst older people by teaching them to fall better. After months of Judo training and other strength and agility exercises it still appeared that when the patients fell accidentally they still broke the same number of bones and injuries. Training to fall helps protect us when engaged in Judo or Football or roller derby. Accidental falls we tend to just react by reflex.

 

[badboyberty]

From my own limited experience with head banging the bitumen, it's very hard to do anything if your front wheel is taken out from under you. Losing it on a high speed corner is different, then you have some control about how you land. But it's usually the crashes in the bunch that do the damage and it's usually one instant you're up, next instant you're on the ground. You'd have to be made of rubber and have truly lightning reflexes to be able to tuck and roll while crashing the normal way. With your hands below your hips and your shoulders so far forward it takes a lot of effort just to protect your head.

At 40+ km/hr with only a bit of styrofoam and the thinnest lycra money can buy, a crash is going to hurt. It's actually incredibly impressive how few pros DNF after those crashes.

 

[Guidokcd]

While I don't have a copy of the study, I did attend a sports medicine lecture that claimed through a study, that a lot of professional cyclists have less bone density than the average person due to the nature of spending so much time on the bike, being a non-impact activity, as oppose to running.rea
This was just a couple years after Beloki's big crash in the Tour where he broke his hip. I asked the doctor if he felt Beloki's injury could've been as bad as it was due to decreased bone density. He didn't want to say on record, but felt that it was probably likely.

The collarbone is a fairly weak bone to begin with, and is essentially designed to break in order to protect other structures. Plus, it's just instinctive to put one's hand out when falling off a bike, which is the classic mechanism for a fractured collarbone.

 

[Escarabajo]

And we still do it even if it proof worthless 99.9% of the times.

 

[LongSprint]

Tuck and roll? Jeeziz!!!

Maybe my sense of humour is too subtle...

 

[131313]

Tuck and roll? Jeeziz!!!

How dare you question the tuck and roll:

http://eriksaunders.net/?page_id=287