In some cases you can ride again right away, but do be mindful of the fact recovery is your top priority. Try to keep fresh wounds and patches of new skin covered when you are out in the sun in order to keep them from scarring too badly. In the same way you would take extra rest to recover properly from the flu, be ready and willing to indulge in a bit of extra couch time after a crash – your body is working hard to recover in ways that you can’t necessarily see, and pushing too hard will slow your return to full strength.Īfter a crash, most doctors advised me to keep the wound moist and covered – but do try to give it some time to breathe in the air if you can during a time of day that it isn’t likely to get dirty or contaminated. Get a massage if your schedule allows, or try some gentle stretching and range of motion movement if it doesn’t. This is a great time to relax and practice some good self-care. Protein is a necessary macronutrient for building (or rebuilding) muscles and bones, so his advice – as usual – was spot on. My coach, Dean Golich, always used to remind me to eat an extra serving of protein each day in the weeks after a crash. If you do continue to be active –perhaps if you crash in the middle of a stage race, or if your injuries aren’t so severe to force you off your bike – be sure to eat a bit extra to allow for healing on top of your training load. However, your body needs additional nutrition and energy to rebuild, so post-crash isn’t the time to restrict calories. If your crash forces you to take a break or back off your scheduled workouts, it can be tempting to dial back your caloric intake to match your lower activity level. It’s admittedly tough to sleep when you are uncomfortable and keep rolling over on your wounds, so if possible try to get to bed a bit early to make up for decreased sleep quality. I’d recommend sleeping on old sheets for the first few nights to avoid adding insult to injury as you inevitably wake up glued to your bedding. ![]() Whether it’s a tough workout, an illness, or a crash, your body needs rest to recover from stress and build back up to full strength. So, with that comforting level of expertise, here is my best collection of post-crash advice to get you out there and healthy as soon as possible. The answer is never, but that I did once do a perfect somersault down a road in Italy that resulted in an identical scar on each and every vertebra. When any medical professional sees my back, their first question is about when I got my spinal surgery. Nonetheless, I carry a lot of crash-memory from my career. Aided–though by no means assured–by the fact I mostly ride my commuter bike these days, my no-crash streak is still going. In January of 2017, shortly after my retirement from professional racing, I told my friend, Lindsay, that I wanted this to be the year I didn’t crash my bike once. After checking your vital signs and the condition of your bicycle–in either order–your next question is about when you can get back to training and forget that this ever happened. ![]() Nothing is broken, and the only structural rips are in your formerly brand-new kit, but a whole lot of things are red, raw, and oozing. ![]() I know, I’ve been there: You fell off your bike, slid down the road and left an awful lot of your skin behind.
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