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Mountain Bike Injuries : An Overview

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Sports Injuries

Abstract

Mountain biking is a popular outdoor recreational activity, an exciting adventure sport, and now an Olympic cycling discipline. The overall injury rate is 16.8 injuries per 1,000 h exposure; 0.4 riders are injured per 100 h cross-country and 4.3 riders per 100 h downhill racing. The rate is higher for experts (17.9/1,000 h) compared to professional riders (13.4/1,000 h). More serious injuries to the head and neck occur while falling over the handlebars rather than falling off the bike to the side, which tends to result in lower limb injuries. Most injuries sustained mountain biking occur in young males aged 20–39 years. This chapter reviews the current literature on mountain biking injuries and developments in injury prevention.

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Correspondence to Michael R. Carmont .

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Carmont, M.R. (2014). Mountain Bike Injuries : An Overview. In: Doral, M., Karlsson, J. (eds) Sports Injuries. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36801-1_217-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36801-1_217-1

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