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Johan Bruyneel: Cycle helmet saved my skull

Ex-US Postal manager posts picture of cracked lid to Twitter after crash in Spain

Johan Bruyneel has tweeted a picture of his cycle helmet which cracked following a crash today – and says that if he hadn’t been wearing it, it could have been his skull that was broken.

The 51-year-old Belgian, who as manager of US Postal and Discovery Channel led Lance Armstrong to the seven Tour de France victories between 1999 and 2005 he was stripped of in 2012, told his followers he had “lost balance” in what he described as “an innocent crash.”

As a rider, Bruyneel won two Tour de France stages and also wore the race leader’s yellow jersey.

While most closely linked with Armstrong as a team manager, he also guided Alberto Contador to overall Tour de France victories with Discovery Channel in 2007 and Astana in 2009.

The latter race took place during Armstrong’s comeback season with the Kazakh team, the Texan finishing third overall, although he would be stripped of that result too, with Bradley Wiggins moving up to take the final podium spot.

Bruyneel subsequently moved with Armstrong to the new RadioShack team for the 2010 season and remained with it when it merged with Leopard-Trek to form RadioShack-Nissan.

He was sacked by the Luxembourg outfit in October 2012 after the United States Anti-Doping Agency published its reasoned decision following its investigation of doping at US Postal.

In April last year Bruyneel, who is based in London and Madrid – this week, he’s been riding in Spain – was banned from involvement with sport for 10 years as a result of the US Postal scandal.

Unlike Armstrong, who confessed to doping in early 2013, Bruyneel had protested his innocence and chose, unsuccessfully, to submit to arbitration.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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17 comments

Avatar
morseykayak | 8 years ago
0 likes

10 years. Good.

Avatar
giff77 | 8 years ago
1 like

So he lost his balance? That suggests that the fella was going less than walking speed or had forgot to unclip when coming to a stop. If this was the case then the helmet did its job for an impact that it was designed for. Fair does. 

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Mungecrundle | 8 years ago
5 likes

Well his head was in it when he crashed and I'm guessing he's seen a lot of cycle related head injuries in his time. So I hope all you experts who weren't there, have only a picture of a broken helmet but are able to come to a conclusion that it didn't work don't mind if I consider your comments to be complete and utter crap.

 

 

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Bob's Bikes | 8 years ago
0 likes

Shame

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1961BikiE | 8 years ago
4 likes

Christ on a see-saw, the internet really is filled with haters. Still as long as you're stuck on your keyboard at least you 're doing relatively little real harm.

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burtthebike | 8 years ago
1 like

Looking at the picture of the helmet, it seems that it cracked without compressing the foam, so absorbed almost no energy.  Take a ceiling tile and try to snap it with your fingers; easy isn't it?  Now take the same tile and try to crush it with your fingers; hard isn't it?  Any helmet that cracks before compressing has failed catastrophically and provided almost no protection.

JB might like to read a bit about helmets before making completely unfounded and inaccurate statements, just like all the other "helmet saved my life" stories. http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1209.html

Avatar
dassie replied to burtthebike | 8 years ago
4 likes
burtthebike wrote:

Looking at the picture of the helmet, it seems that it cracked without compressing the foam, so absorbed almost no energy.  Take a ceiling tile and try to snap it with your fingers; easy isn't it?  Now take the same tile and try to crush it with your fingers; hard isn't it?  Any helmet that cracks before compressing has failed catastrophically and provided almost no protection.

JB might like to read a bit about helmets before making completely unfounded and inaccurate statements, just like all the other "helmet saved my life" stories. http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1209.html

Though to be fair we can't see the whole helmet, the crack may simply be the most dramatic damage.  The helmet may have saved his life or prevented life changing injury, but it's an anecdote - so nothing really can be broadly inferred one way or another.  All we can say is 'great, glad you're OK', and carry on cycling - with or without a helmet, as we choose.

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skull-collector... | 8 years ago
3 likes

If you would really care about protecting you head during a crash you would advocate for MOTORCYCLE-style helmets not foam pieces of crap which break like that.

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brooksby replied to skull-collector-not-really | 8 years ago
1 like
skull-collector-not-really wrote:

If you would really care about protecting you head during a crash you would advocate for MOTORCYCLE-style helmets not foam pieces of crap which break like that.

Well, yeah, but how well-ventilated is a motorcycle helmet, huh? 

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robthehungrymonkey replied to skull-collector-not-really | 8 years ago
0 likes
skull-collector-not-really wrote:

If you would really care about protecting you head during a crash you would advocate for MOTORCYCLE-style helmets not foam pieces of crap which break like that.

 

Brilliant bit of logic.

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Batchy replied to robthehungrymonkey | 8 years ago
0 likes
robthehungrymonkey wrote:
skull-collector-not-really wrote:

If you would really care about protecting you head during a crash you would advocate for MOTORCYCLE-style helmets not foam pieces of crap which break like that.

So just why do manufacturers of motor cycling helmets advise that they should be replaced following an incident where the helmet has taken the impact ? 

 

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benb replied to Batchy | 8 years ago
0 likes
Batchy wrote:

So just why do manufacturers of motor cycling helmets advise that they should be replaced following an incident where the helmet has taken the impact ? 

 

So they can sell more units?

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STiG911 | 8 years ago
2 likes

Guy makes point about helmet safety in his opinion - people post bitter comments.

Wow.

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Batchy | 8 years ago
1 like

It's no use spouting about your helmet and how it may have saved your skull Johan.

There will always be a very small minority of " Sun" readers here in blighty happy to blindly tell you a different story. Your name may just as well be Jeremy !

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DaveE128 | 8 years ago
2 likes

Armstrong and claims of helmet protecting head in one article?! Popcorn!!

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ridein | 8 years ago
0 likes

JB, go back to your hole in the ground.

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Carton | 8 years ago
3 likes

Oh, Johan, you magnificent advocate of factual facts and rider's safety, if you had blamed it on overzelous disc brakes we'd have some real kindling on our hands.

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