Images From EWS Medical Study
After nearly three years of research analyzing mountain bike injuries, Enduro racing and Edinburgh Napier University have released what is the largest medical study ever to be undertaken in mountain biking.
Over 3000 riders completed an in-depth health survey detailing all history of health issues and injury suffered from mountain bike riding (enduro for want of a better word) in and out of races or events. More than half of riders who took part in the Rider Health Survey were riders racing below EWS level, showing great engagement from amateur racers.
And the study finds:
“The majority of riders responding to the rider reported health survey were amateur/domestic enduro riders.
Overall 40.7% of riders reported they had suffered a significant injury (an injury lasting a month or more) during Enduro mountain bike riding For the number of Enduro rider years reported, this equated to 0.15 significant injuries per rider per year, with 87.6 mean days needed for recovery per injury.
The higher the level of Enduro riding and racing the greater the proportion of riders reporting a significant injury Shoulder/clavicle injuries were the most common significant injury, representing a quarter of all injuries reported, with shoulder/- clavicle fracture and shoulder dislocation injuries causing the greatest burden in terms of total number of days needed for recovery.
Concussion injury was the third most common diagnosis affecting 4% of all riders (equating 0.01 concussions per rider per year of Enduro), and occurred more frequently in female riders.”
You can read the full-length analysis on the EWS website or download the report directly.