Cycling injuries named, as the medical literature reports them.

The overall pattern

Road cycling: Rooney, Sarriegui and Heron (2020)

This systematic review in BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine covered 12 studies of adult road cyclists and rated their quality as generally low. The authors found that:

• abrasions, cuts and bruising (haematomas) made up roughly 40 to 60 percent of injuries, fractures 6 to 15 percent, head injuries including concussion 5 to 15 percent, and muscle and tendon injuries 2 to 17.5 percent;
• the collarbone (clavicle) was the most commonly fractured bone and the shoulder girdle the most common fracture site, and upper-limb injuries outnumbered lower-limb injuries;
• sudden trauma dominated overall; in the one included study of Tour de France withdrawals, 53 percent were for acute trauma and 47 percent for other causes;
• injury rates varied from about 3.2 to 116 per 1,000 amateur riders between studies, and in one event amateurs had a higher rate than professionals (8.25 against 3.10 per 100,000 km).

All competitive disciplines: Fallon, Palmer, Bigard and Heron (2025)

This systematic review and meta-analysis (online 18 July 2025) took in 44 studies of mountain bike, road, track, BMX and para-cycling. It found no studies at all for cyclo-cross, gravel, indoor cycling, trials or esports. Its findings:

• BMX had the highest injury incidence, about 4.59 injuries per 365 days, and the highest share of upper-limb injuries, about 65 percent, ahead of road (about 48 percent) and track (about 44 percent);
• skin cuts and abrasions were the most common injury type, and fractures the second;
• in road cycling about 14 percent of injuries involved the head, neck or face, yet road had the lowest share of concussions of the disciplines studied, about 4.7 percent;
• gastrointestinal illness was most common in road cycling (about 18 percent) and respiratory illness in track and mountain biking (about 32 percent each), and para-cyclists had the highest rate of illness.

Mountain biking: Koivisto and colleagues (2025)

An updated review by Koivisto, Oddo Rodriguez, Finnoff, Provance and Willick (Current Sports Medicine Reports, 1 June 2025) found the head and upper limbs the most common injury sites in mountain biking, with concussions and fractures among the serious injuries, and noted that few studies have looked at prevention.

Crash injuries named

Thompson and Rivara's review "Bicycle-related injuries" (American Family Physician, 2001) names these:

Head injuries

Skull fracture, concussion, bruising of the brain and bleeding inside the skull. The authors call head injuries the most serious bicycle injuries, report them in 22 to 47 percent of injured cyclists, and say they cause more than 60 percent of bicycle-related deaths and most long-term disability. Statistics Netherlands reported in April 2026 that a head injury was the main cause of death for 63 percent of Dutch cyclists killed in 2025. Concussion rules are on the concussion protocols page.

Face and eye injuries

Fractures of the face and teeth, bruising, and debris in the eye.

Road rash

The common name for abrasions from sliding along a road surface. Grit left in the skin can leave permanent marks, known as traumatic tattooing.

Chest and abdominal injuries

Broken ribs, lung injury and damage to organs such as a ruptured spleen or torn liver, which can result from striking the handlebars.

Limb injuries

Fractures, dislocations and strains.

Overuse and pressure conditions named

• Overuse injuries. Rooney and colleagues (2020) found the knee the most common site of overuse injury in road cyclists. Patellofemoral pain syndrome was the most common diagnosis, followed by iliotibial band syndrome and rotator cuff tendinopathy.
• Handlebar neuropathy. Pressure on the ulnar or median nerve in the hand from long periods on the handlebars. Thompson and Rivara describe ulnar neuropathy as causing numbness and tingling in the ring and little fingers and weakness in finger movements.
• Saddle pressure. Thompson and Rivara report genital numbness or tingling from pressure on the pudendal nerve, occasionally with erectile problems, and also describe urethral and vulval injuries.
• Saddle sores. Ranging from minor skin irritation to ulcers.
• Other. Irritation of the Achilles tendon, neck pain and low back pain from the riding position.

Any of these symptoms is a matter for a doctor or other qualified clinician.

Bone health and energy deficiency

Olmedillas and colleagues' systematic review "Cycling and bone health" (BMC Medicine, December 2012, 31 studies) found that adult road cyclists in regular training have low bone mineral density at key sites such as the lumbar spine, though some results conflicted, and concluded that road cycling gives no significant bone-building benefit. A summary of the review says about two-thirds of the professional and masters road cyclists in the studies could be classed as osteopenic, and that mountain biking or combining cycling with other sports may lessen the effect.

In 2025 the UCI and World Athletics named relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs), caused by chronic under-fuelling, as the subject of their second planned e-learning module.