I Crashed

why and how it is going

For exactly seven days ago, my routine bike ride ended with me flying over the handlebars.

It wasn't because of a reckless driver. Drivers in Norway are generally incredibly respectful towards cyclists and roller skiers.

It was a sunny beautiful day. I usually ride around the Oslo airport and on that day, I saw a huge military fly that was an unusual sight. I got distracted for three seconds and the front wheel went out of the road shoulder causing me flying over the handlebars. I hit the asphalt edge with my head and left shoulder and left side of my thorax. I foound my glasses 2 meters away and my phone 5 meters away.

There is a reason why you should wear glasses over the helmet straps so that they don’t get stuck during the crash and cause an eye injury.

Minutes after the crash

Old habits die hard. Within minutes I had done my own primary trauma assessment.
I didn’t have major injuries. That was extremely lucky. In this type of crash, the most common injuries are shoulder separation, clavicular bone and rib fractures. The worst out of the three is probably shoulder separation where acromioclavicular ligament (ACL) is torn.

Different grades of acromioclavicular ligament injury

Fortunately, after careful examination I was reassured that there was no ACL rupture. It was Grade I ACL injury. I recollected myself, drank some water and checked the bike. I rode home.

Treatment and recovery

The treatment for this is ice, painkillers if needed , and light shoulder movement. Recovery is usually 1-2 weeks. No surgery is needed.

The first 3 days, I avoided riding outside but kept moving with a lot of walking and some hiking. During the hike on Day 3, I tried to run but referring pain was too much. I postponed running for a couple of more days. I rode Zwift and slowly started riding outside again. It is not advised to ride gravel or MTB. Any vibration makes it worse. I am slowly adding easy running. No swimming yet because of open wound. No strength training for upper body yet. I am assuming I will be able to add those in 5-6 days.

Recovery routine after the crash

• Keep the easy bike volume high enough to maintain the fitness

• Careful with intensity, avoidance is advised

• Keep the shoulder movement, with some resistance if you can tolerate

• Add running slowly, and swimming even slower. First swim session shouldn’t be more than 15 minutes. It should give you “why bother” feeling.

• No race (obviously)

A few take-home messages Gordo Byrn taught me

• Bike crashes can be a good indicator of fatigue. If you are not fatigued, you may experience “close calls” but usually athletes crash 3-4 weeks before a race. Watch out for that

• One helmet = one crash. The helmet should be replaced after one crash even though it appears intact. There might be some invisible cracks in the foam underneath. You don’t want that

• For recovery, cut down intensity and volume drastically but not food. A lot of athletes cut down calories when the training volume and intensity are reduced. The body is used to utilize high amount of energy during training. Injury recovery needs energy. If you cut down the energy, recovery becomes slower. The body should be able to re-direct that excess energy to injury healing.

• Recovery is not about doing nothing; it is about doing the right amout.

• Psychological impact of the crash can be greater than the physical impact. A slow build-up may be required.

Overall, the life is good, and I am so grateful it happened that way. Because it could have been much worse.

Stay healthy and crash-free,
Bek