ACUTE INJURIES IN OFF-ROAD BICYCLE RACING

A descriptive study was conducted to investigate injuries sustained at a major off-road bicycling race at Mammoth Mountain, California, July 6 to 10, 1994. A total of 4027 individual starts in five events durin g the race were reported. Overall, the total number of competitors in the 5 events was 3624, with some cyclists participating in multiple ev ents. Injuries were considered significant if they occurred during com petition and prevented the rider from completing the event. Sixteen cy clists had injuries that met these criteria for an overall injury rate of 0.40%. These 16 cyclists had 44 injuries. Abrasions were the most common injury, followed by contusions, lacerations, fractures, and con cussions. The mean injury severity score was 3.0 (range, 1 to 5) with 81.2% of the injuries resulting from cyclists going downhill. Injuries were more severe when the riders were thrown from the bicycles (P = 0 .03). We observed different mechanisms of injury in various events, su ggesting that the risk factors for sustaining a traumatic injury may v ary according to the type of competition involved.