Injuries

[Argon Man]

In the spirit of Lance's broken clavicle, what injuries have we all sustained on our bikes?
I have 8 screws and a titanium plate in my right forearm, one knee perminately tattooed purple scar tissue from a crash last October, nose surgery, another scar on my left arm from being hit by a car in Jan, and one down on my right ankle from hitting the chainring with my leg after being cut off badly by a car.
Gee that looks bad now!

 

[Daniel Benson]

Nothing but cuts and bruises for me but I've had a few painful crashes all the same. There's certainly something going around though. Two members of the Cycling Plus team have crashed in the last few weeks with one poor chap breaking his collarbone and cracking some ribs. Ouch.

 

[CapeRoadie]

Seven rib fractures in five right ribs, three fractures in one of those ribs; torn left lumbar muscle; multiple bruised left ribs, neck muscle strain; moderate sprained left wrist; and a bruised ego from multiple poor finishes. Mental illness in the form of OCD from obsessive training and impulse buying of the next best cycling thingies.

 

[Anonymous]

i did pretty well.. about five gashed head and twelve stitches in my knee.... all at very low speeds in bunches...

at speed.. one little glide down the hill at roche, at about 40.. .nothing more than a graze...

great thing about crashes is that adrenalin works wonders for your energy for the rest of the day.. worst thing is the hospital always had an evil nurse who would pull the scabs out of your hair with tweezers with no consideration...

 

[lookkg386]

Just the usual cuts and bruises, nothing broken (touch wood), snapped a full carbon frame in half once on a hairpin turn that went wrong.

 

[JavierOtxoa]

In the spirit of Lance's broken clavicle, what injuries have we all sustained on our bikes?
I

Well I have once the collarbone broked but not in the spirit of Lance, it was practicing Judo and I was prety 'clean' since I was ten years old at. I don't remember who was practicing, me ,or my partener. In cycling just the usual bruises and superficial cuts. So far...

 

[bianchigirl]

On the subject of injuries in the peloton - is it me or is this the worst season for injuries - at this rate Cavendish won't just take the MV in the Tour, he'll do a Merckx and win the whole damn lot because there'll be no one there

 

[Anonymous]

I used to ride a Cannondale 2.8 with a Flite saddle. I went out one day for about 4 hours, and when I got back, my little tff was numb. COMPLETELY NUMB. That lasted for about 4 days. I have hated Cannondales ever since.

 

[Trev_S]

Broken Scapula courtesy of a crash a week ago.

 

[Bala Verde]

I have 8 screws and a titanium plate in my right forearm

Didn't you have the option for carbonfibre, or magnesium instead?

 

[Major Taylor]

By far my worst injury was hip Bursitis which essentially kept me off the bike for 6 months.

I had a concussion crashing on the track. I have had tendonitis in either knee more times than I can count. I have twisted joints whiles crashing several times. The worst of those was when my foot was caught in a railroad tye which I crashed on in the rain. That sucked.

 

[Dedman]

The only injury I have had was to my ego. I (we all were actually) was going to slow on the neutral lap during the beginning of a points race and slid out and took about 3 people with me. Luckily we were just exiting turn 2 so the banking of the track had started to shallow up a bit. No body was hurt luckily. We all just regrouped and restarted the race. I sure was embarrassed though.

 

[BroDeal]

I have been lucky considering the number of crashes.

Lots of road rash.
Cracked ribs on a couple of occasions.
Scars from crashing into a fence. (Don't ask)
Lots of soft tissue damage but nothing that turned out to be permanent.

 

[Angliru]

I used to ride a Cannondale 2.8 with a Flite saddle. I went out one day for about 4 hours, and when I got back, my little tff was numb. COMPLETELY NUMB. That lasted for about 4 days. I have hated Cannondales ever since.

Those older Cannondales can be punishing on rides longer than 2 hours.
Hey, I still use my 2.8 as my commuter. I have a saddle with the center area recessed so maybe that accounts for my never encountering the issues that you speak. Give the Cannondales another chance. I've found that they're great bikes. I've got 3 of them: 2.8, 3.0 and Super Delta V 1000 full suspension mountain bike. I'm looking at getting a Caad 8 or 9 in the raw silver or matte black.

Now in my second race after a 15 year hiatus from competition, I crashed, got up staggering about with what was a mild concussion. Somehow another rider had ran into the rear of my bike dislodging my rear wheel. Groggy and obviously not thinking straight, I located my rear wheel, put it back on, jumped back on my bike and went off in pursuit, as if I had the slightest chance of catching the pack. Of course I never caught them and I gave up by the time I reached the start/finish line. The damage: mild concussion, helmet totaled with pieces out on the road, bent crank arm, sore, scuffed shoulder and elbow. This was on my 2.8 with the downtube index 105 shifters.

 

[Rice Daddy]

I skinned a knee once. It was definitely a setback and it was the biggest setback I've ever had in my cycling career.

 

[nobrakes]

I was a pretty accident-free racer with only a few minor injuries like a broken collarbone and a few cracked ribs, up until a bad accident in 2005.

I was in a race in an unfamiliar area in the southwest, and while in a headdown breakaway, 3rd or 4th back, the riders ahead of me all suddenly veered off to the left or right, while I, not being able to see why they had veered, ran straight into a gap in a cattleguard at 30 MPH, stopping my bike instantly and catapulting me headfirst into the roadway, crushing my face and jaw, breaking my neck and crushing my right elbow. This wasn't the worst, as I also had a traumatic brain injury and spinal cord damage that is still bothersome today.

I spent 4 months recovering in a spinal cord injury hospital, where I was first diagnosed as a full quad, then partial, then, 4 months later I was able to walk on my own out of that place.

I am back on the bike, and according to my old teammates, riding as strong as ever. I know this is them being kind to me, as I may be able to ride, it's not as effortless as it once was.

Ammusingly, the following summer our group was riding on one of our training routes in the rural areas near where we live, when 2 large dogs came out of nowhere in front of me and my wife causing us both to crash into them. I broke my collarbone again, and my wife sustained a hipbone fracture that still gives her problems, and is being evaluated for surgery in April.

I've got titanium reinforcing my collarbone now that always makes itself known, but not in a painful way. I had the titanium plates and screw removed from my right elbow, and even though I can't quite straighten my arm like before, it feels much better with the hardware out.

Yes, we are still avid cyclists, and even at 59 years old, I'm still competitive with folks many years my junior. Even if the accidents have set us back somewhat, I believe the good fitness I had from being a cyclist all my life is one of the factors that helped me survive.

 

[Major Taylor]

I also had a traumatic brain injury and spinal cord damage that is still bothersome today.

I spent 4 months recovering in a spinal cord injury hospital, where I was first diagnosed as a full quad, then partial, then, 4 months later I was able to walk on my own out of that place.

Crap, it looks like you wion the thread.

Lucky you

 

[Greyhound Velo]

In accidents caused by myself or other cyclists I've been lucky to escape with nothing worse than road rash and bruises. Throw drivers into the mix and it's a different story. About 10 years ago I was t-boned by a car going ~30 mph and suffered skull fractures front and rear, a fractured cervical vertebra, broken bones in one hand and a combination break/separation/sprain of my lower leg at the ankle, not to mention massive trauma to the frontal lobes of my brain from hitting the windshield. It took a couple of months in the hospital recovering physically and about a year and a half of neuropsych therapy to get back to normal, but I'm fine now. The only permanent damage is that I lost my sense of smell.

The funny thing was that I refused to let that accident keep me down. I did a cyclocross race while I was still in outpatient physical therapy (with casts on my leg and arm ) and the following season was my most successful yet in terms of race results. I guess there's some truth in that old saying "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger".

 

[tifosa]

3 separate super-deluxe combos:
tib-fib/ankle,
clavicle/shoulder/nose,
wrist/hand,
and accompanying road rash.
And now it's injury related arthritis. Bonus!

 

[nightfend]

These are the bones I've broken from bike racing and running:
Broken left clavicle
Broken foot
Broken left femur
Broken pelvis
Broken coccyx

I can't even count the number of boxes of gauze bandages and triple anti-biotic ointment I've went through.

 

[lookkg386]

Ouch to some of these stories, makes me feel very lucky with just my scrapes and bruises!

 

[Green Hornet]

Broken Ankle / hit by car / a number of years ago


I was hit by a pick-up truck last July - I am still in physical therapy. Mangled SI joint (hip/tailbone).

I am beginning to doubt I will ever recover from this one. Any thoughts on this injury welcomed.

 

[BigSky]

So ya had a bad day...

Got whacked by a car last June: Taking it from the top...concussion, broken nose, broken rib, bruised lung -- here's where it gets scary -- 5 burst/comprtession fractures of lumbar vertebrae, internal injuries including a torn urethra (actually worse than it sounds, if that's possible) that required reconstructive surgery. Then it gets worse: the paramedics cut off my favorite Louis G jersey AND I busted up the Boa system on my S-Works shoes!

 

[Anonymous]

I was a pretty accident-free racer with only a few minor injuries like a broken collarbone and a few cracked ribs, up until a bad accident in 2005.

I was in a race in an unfamiliar area in the southwest, and while in a headdown breakaway, 3rd or 4th back, the riders ahead of me all suddenly veered off to the left or right, while I, not being able to see why they had veered, ran straight into a gap in a cattleguard at 30 MPH, stopping my bike instantly and catapulting me headfirst into the roadway, crushing my face and jaw, breaking my neck and crushing my right elbow. This wasn't the worst, as I also had a traumatic brain injury and spinal cord damage that is still bothersome today.

I spent 4 months recovering in a spinal cord injury hospital, where I was first diagnosed as a full quad, then partial, then, 4 months later I was able to walk on my own out of that place.

I am back on the bike, and according to my old teammates, riding as strong as ever. I know this is them being kind to me, as I may be able to ride, it's not as effortless as it once was.

Ammusingly, the following summer our group was riding on one of our training routes in the rural areas near where we live, when 2 large dogs came out of nowhere in front of me and my wife causing us both to crash into them. I broke my collarbone again, and my wife sustained a hipbone fracture that still gives her problems, and is being evaluated for surgery in April.

I've got titanium reinforcing my collarbone now that always makes itself known, but not in a painful way. I had the titanium plates and screw removed from my right elbow, and even though I can't quite straighten my arm like before, it feels much better with the hardware out.

Yes, we are still avid cyclists, and even at 59 years old, I'm still competitive with folks many years my junior. Even if the accidents have set us back somewhat, I believe the good fitness I had from being a cyclist all my life is one of the factors that helped me survive.

Man, there is nothing even remotely amusing about any of those stories, but I give you and A for showing optimism.

 

[cactusman]

Lance's clavicle

My worse injury (1 June 1996 at 11:43 AM) was a separated shoulder (the most severe), a broken 4th metacarpel bone in left hand, assorted cuts, contussions, abrasions, a shin swollen for months, but I was back on the bike in two weeks albeit riding like a 90 year old man.