Injury and illness among athletes during a multi-day elite cycling road race

Abstract

A broad spectrum of illness and injury occurs during elite multi-day road races, ranging from simple skin injuries to serious injuries requiring hospital admission. Most injuries and illnesses are minor; however, medical teams must be prepared to treat life-threatening trauma.

Analgesic Management of Pain in Elite Athletes: A Systematic Review

“…On one hand, some articles presented relatively low prevalence of NSAID use, including 2.4% of urine samples containing traces of NSAIDs at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games, 28 6.7% of Finnish Olympic athletes prescribed NSAIDs in the last 7 days, 22 9.8% of Paralympic athletes who declared NSAID use on doping control forms during the Athens 2004 Games, 76 and 11.1% of Olympic athletes who declared NSAID use on the doping control forms during the Athens 2004 Games. 77 On the other hand, some articles described relatively high rates of use, including 100% use in non-traumatic injuries suffered during an international cycling race (n=16), 83 93% use in the past year among Italian professional football players, 69 over 50% use during the course of an international football tournament, 11,17,18,75,80 and 50% use among collegiate American football players over the course of a season. 38 Studies consistently suggested that NSAID use rates are concerning for myriad reasons, including concurrent use of multiple NSAIDs, multiple routes of administration, higher than the manufacturer's recommended dosing, use for prophylaxis of pain, limited evidence-based clinical guidance, adverse effects, and limited evidence regarding effects on injury healing.…”

Incidence of injuries and illness and related risk factors in mountain biking events: A systematic review protocol

“…Most of the data are from a limited number of race events (16,17). Gastrointestinal illness, allergies, respiratory illness, dehydration, headaches and skin irritations are the most commonly reported illnesses in cycling events (16,18,19). In the 2016 Olympic…”

“…This consensus statement is explicit that injuries and illness have occurred regardless of the impact on training or competition and whether or not medical attention was sought. This definition has been adapted for use in a previous cycling study, but injuries and illness were reported based only on medical attention following interactions with medical staff in spite of the definition (18). When only including medical attention injuries, it is possible to underestimate the incidence as riders who are able to continue without medical intervention, or are self-treating would not be considered injured.…”

Sports-related concussion (SRC) in road cycling: the RoadsIde heaD Injury assEssment (RIDE) for elite road cycling

“…3 Furthermore, epidemiological studies estimate that SRC accounts for 1.3%-9.1% of all injuries reported during cycling events [4][5][6] including just over 2% of the injuries reported during the Tour de France after analysing 8 years of injuries between 2010 and 2017, 7 and their incidence is increasing. 8 Indeed cycling is a very popular sport and form of physical activity, with 12% of the general adult population in England Open access reported to cycle at least once a week and 3.4% cycling five times a week. 9 The fifth Concussion Consensus Conference in Berlin (2017) defined SRC as 'a complex pathophysiological process affecting the brain, induced by traumatic biomechanical forces' 10 and highlighted several clinical features that can be used to suspect SRC in any athlete.…”