Bike Racing & Riding Safety Tips

It’s no secret, hurtling along a trail or a road at high speeds is a dangerous proposition, but as the saying goes— No Guts, No Glory.

Here are some tips to make your racing and riding experience safer and how to treat any minor injuries that come from racing.

Practice

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so it is important to hone your skillset, know exactly how your equipment works, and know how to read the race.

Most often crashes during racing happen from a lapse of concentration paired with a moment of carelessness. Be sure to have rock solid fundamentals like looking behind you on both sides, grabbing food from pockets, and drinking & eating while maintaining speed and holding your line. Often a simple cross of the wheels while looking back or eating is enough to spell doom.

In all close combat situations like crit racing and fast group riding, maintaining your hands in the drops with at least one finger resting on a brake lever will provide you lots of control. When your hands are down in the drops with elbows slightly bent, you limit your exposure to potentially getting hooked from a passing rider, bumped off your line, or letting your hand slip off the bars.

Lots of group riding will help you understand peloton dynamics but a practice race like Tuesday Night Worlds is even better. If you are able to, you should keep your head up to regularly scan and scope the entire group, not just the person in front of you. This will allow you to see obstacles or if the pace changes at the front. This knowledge will help you proactively accelerate, change your line, or be ready for whatever might happen. This skillset is particularly important when riding in a windy day, or spotting and predicting reckless behavior you’ll want to steer away from.

Know how to corner! Cornering is a surprisingly tricky skill to hone and develop, and when you’re in a race situation whether on road, mountain, or cyclocross, cornering ability and trust in your equipment will let you maintain speed and efficiency. This video is fantastic at explaining the physics of cornering and it applies to all types of bicycles with different degrees of application. Once again, watch it on YouTube. Trusting your cornering skills will reduce fear and anxiety of cornering with people around you. This way you’ll be able to lift your focus from surviving the turn and into group dynamics, tactics, and winning the race.

Falling is also something you need to mentally and physically prepare for. Cyclists are notorious for breaking collarbones as we often fall sideways on our shoulders. Hitting the gym and increasing shoulder strength and mobility will reduce the likelihood of serious injury. Knowing how to fall is also important— when mountain biking, knowing how to bail by tossing the bike away is a key skill that will keep you healthy. While riding road, tucking your arms and head like a turtle will allow you to roll, which despite spreading road rash evenly throughout your body, will help keep your much more expensive bones intact. Seriously broken bones and severe road rash are caused from trying to catch oneself and skidding to a stop.

Preparedness

This section is specifically for equipment.

As always, make sure your brakes work, tires have the right pressure, gears work flawlessly, and that your cleats are not worn. Horrific crashes happen from malfunctioning equipment, so make sure your chain won’t drop or that your cleat will unclip mid-sprint.

Clothing matters. Always wear gloves while racing because scraped hands are painful. Full finger gloves are the safest bet. Another tip is racing with a base layer to limit road rash exposure. In case of a tumble, the pavement or dirt will catch the top layer and the base layer will slide inside the sheath. This is exactly how MIPS technology works in modern helmets to prevent concussions.

Always bring a first aid kit and when you arrive at the race venue, make a mental note of where the medic station is. It’s not always obvious, but knowing where they are could always reduce anxiety in case of a more serious accident.

Shaved legs and arms look great, feel great, and shimmer in the summer sun. They also allow for gentler road rash because hair creates a velcro effect with the ground. Shaved skin is easier to pick gravel out of, keep clean, and therefore heals faster.

Applying First Aid & How To Treat Road Rash

That’s me, the author, on the ground, showing you that I’ve been there and lived to tell the tale.

If you take a tumble, knowing what to do is important. If it’s a serious injury, always seek professional medical help. If it’s just a scrape, time and proper care will heal it.

Treating road rash: First clean the injury with gentle soap as best as you can. If possible, avoid using hydrogen peroxide— it is fairly intense and can damage the vulnerable newly-exposed skin cells and delay healing. Simply apply an ointment like Vaseline or Neosporin—not cream— to seal out any contaminants and cover with a loose bandage.

Over the next few days the road rash will ooze blood plasma as your body sends additional blood and nutrients to the area. If this inflammation is too great or painful, ibuprofen or other anti-inflammatories can help keep it under control. Keep it clean with gentle soap and reapply ointment as necessary.

Once the oozing has stopped, you may continue with ointment or you can apply Tegaderm film. It was developed for burn victims so their bandages wouldn’t have to be changed daily, reducing stress and allowing healing to happen from within. When you apply tegaderm, you can leave it on as long as you wish, and you’ll get to see your healing happen through the clear film. Remove it once your road rash is gone!

Conclusion

This article discusses the pretty heavy topic of injury treatment and prevention. It is important to be prepared for anything that might arise so we can move on quickly onto better things. Consider how may people enjoy racing, riding, and other outdoor activities every year without injury; we do it all for fun and it’s important to not forget that.

As the saying goes— No Guts, No Glory.