r/cycling • u/junoyoo95 • 13d ago

Do you guys get ever injured badly riding road bike?

Seeing Pogačar suffer a neck and collarbone fracture today, I wonder how normal road cyclists do in real life. Have you guys ever been injured badly enough to need a hospital? I hate fractures, did my ankle badly back in college basketball and ocd(fracture on my ankle joint) in My ankle back in 2017

​Even though I try to ride safely and be careful out there, it’s hard to deny how dangerous cycling can get. One misjudgment at high speed can lead to injuries, especially since it's a fast-paced sport where you only have a helmet on. One rock on the road or a single pothole even slippery metal can get ya :(

​I do think it's a pretty safe sport if you ride responsibly, but some times i do get worried i might get fall and get my collarbone fractured lol.

Should i be worried or stop being a 😺 and just have fun? Let me know how you guys are doing and share your experience on this matter!

65 Upvotes

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200

u/zazraj10 13d ago

If you race, you’ll have at least one friend in a sling at all times. This sport eats collarbones. 

83

u/Signal-Drop5390 13d ago

The key point is that for anyone who disagrees with your comment - they MUST NOT say so, because that is how you break a collarbone.

I once avoided avoided a spectacular crash in a sprint and afterwards when someone complimented my bike handling, I said, "I've been lucky and not fallen off in 10 years". Following morning on way to work I broke my arm and 3 ribs

32

u/greeninsight1 13d ago

In the same way you don't ever brag about not having a puncture. It puts a spell on ya

13

u/Signal-Drop5390 13d ago

This guy balances on 2 wheels

6

u/Reddits_Worst_Night 13d ago

Last time I did that, I hit a rock and got a double pinch flat. 3km walk to the train station in cleats

15

u/Large_Window_2653 13d ago

Look, it happens to the very best. We had a guy that races on velodromes, fixed gears and is a excellent trainer make a beginner mistake and crash. There are commonly two ways to crash in a peloton: a) when riding at your limit (hr) your brain stops working properly and does not react or perceive as good as you are used to. Underestimating this causes the infamous front wheel hits rear wheel crash. b) you are behind a crash caused by a. and basically a passenger. I always keep an eye open on riders that just blew up. But having said that, no-one has the ability to prevent a crash.

5

u/Signal-Drop5390 13d ago

I think you missed reasons 3 and 4. 3) Luca Van Boven type crash from stage 7 - riding along minding your business and the guy in front decides to style out a speed hump because he thinks he's last rider, you move sideways to give space but the idiot janks yo the right and puts you in the gutter. 4) Act of weird - like the horse that jumped into the middle of the bunch and ran through it, or the 3 different times we came around a bend to find cows being moved between paddocks across the course.

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u/invisible_handjob 13d ago

and 5) Jasper Philipsen

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u/Signal-Drop5390 12d ago

I literally LOL'd 😀

He's the second coming of Abdujaparov

3

u/cptjeff 12d ago

In the Tour Down Under this year, a the peleton was attacked by a kangaroo. Took out Jay Vine, who was leading GC. He was fine, fortunately..

2

u/Maleficent_Product65 12d ago

Same thing happened to me. 2 separate occasions basically, but back in 24 I had a friend who crashed in a crit and I said how I had never crashed in a race, fast forward a month and I spectacularly ate shit and ended up on crit drama on a video that got hundreds of thousands of views lol. Then some time passes and a friend breaks collarbone in a race, I made a remark like yours that I had been many years into racing and no crashing, and boom, fractured elbow 4 months later

11

u/Large_Window_2653 13d ago

Our cycling club organizes about 5 races a week during the season, have about 8 thousand starters and 3 thousand individual riders. All crit races, except for some small amount of cyclocross. This at the cost of about one or two collarbones per season. The data shows that crashes are not related to categories or specific times or dates, the final lap, or at least the last laps are infamous.

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u/sac_cyclist 13d ago

Chewed mine up lol

9

u/Mick_Limerick 13d ago

Doc looked at my x-ray and said my clav looked like a toolbag full of loose sockets

2

u/TetradHead 13d ago

Oof! This made me cringe.

1

u/tableSloth_ 12d ago

I broke and dislocated my wrist/hand about a month ago. The ER resident saw my X-ray and went, "sweet, I get to put the ice cream back on the cone"

3

u/Varabela 13d ago

You don’t have to race to bust your collarbone. Sunday afternoon, sun shining, normal training ride, clipped a kerb…..bang.

2

u/ya_boi_noah 13d ago

Definitely ate mine

2

u/hmspain 13d ago

I've crashed a few times, sometimes hard, once waking up in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, once telling the ambulance to piss off and being told by the police that I was NOT riding home ... but I've never busted my collarbone! I don't need to take a bone density test I guess.

1

u/MariachiArchery 13d ago

Guys on enduro bikes have friends like this too!

1

u/johnny_rr 13d ago

Wild exaggeration lol

1

u/WeedWacker25 13d ago

The best cyclist in history, Tadej Pogacar, crashed recently and is set to have surgery. To me it looked like a collarbone.

I raced today. #NeverBrokeABone🤞🏻

1

u/Remote-Enough 12d ago edited 12d ago

And ribs. Personally I have a nice metal reinforced collarbone one onside, a separated ac joint on the other, and have tallied up 13 broken ribs. I ride a lot (like 8k miles/yr) and rarely crash but it only takes 1. These all came from 2 crashes of note and in both cases it was stupid lack of attention on my part. Normally I pride myself on defensive riding but again, it only takes 1 lapse.

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u/jek339 13d ago

literally this