“Tell me that didn’t just happen”: Aleksandr Vlasov abandons Tour de France with broken ankle, after Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe slammed for allowing dazed rider to immediately continue racing after heavy crash – but team boss says head injury was “minor”

genesis wrote:

Helmets should be equipped with temperature and G-force sensors...once the G load passes a threshold, say 50g then they're pulled for the day. If cleared fit that evening by the race doctors then they'll be given the finish time of the bunch and reinstated the following day.

That couldn't possibly work, imagine if one of the leaders crashed 10km into a 230km stage that was nearly all headwind and finished with the peleton all together, was pulled out for suspected concussion, cleared and put back into the race the next day with 220km less in their legs than their rivals.  Imagine they then went on to win the Tour with everyone knowing they had ridden a 5% shorter course than everyone else. All in favour of riders being pulled for suspected concussion but you can't give them a day off then put them back in the race, it would make a mockery of the whole thing.

You've upset me now. I'm going to sort out my collection of Bunty comics.

Good old UK humour!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmInkxbvlCs

On the other hand if you think the public are clamouring for circuses why not return to the days of Tom Simpson, or even the original tour?

alexuk wrote:

 Not every man is a sissy like you lot.

I was once knocked unconscious in the first half of a rugby game aged 27 and have absolutely no memory of the second half, although according to my teammates I played rather better than usual (they kindly refrained from saying it would be impossible to play worse). I played rugby to a good standard until I was 34 so I don't feel I'm that much of a sissy, but I do feel that I should definitely have been stopped and checked and the same should happen with riders. Still, it's done me no harm, knock wood. Sorry, got to go, someone at the door. Nobody there, must be kids playing silly buggers...

And now there are smart mouthguards to check for sudden changes in acceleration to alert medics.

Hirsute wrote:

And now there are smart mouthguards to check for sudden changes in acceleration to alert medics.

Yes, a great advance, still very expensive at the moment and limited to top-level pros but the idea is eventually that prices will fall and players at every level will use them and be able to store a complete career history of collisions that will make it easier to identify potential dangers. Actually, now you mention it, it surely wouldn't be too difficult to incorporate such a sensor into riders' helmets, would it? Then in the event of a crash medics could be alerted to any head deceleration outside the acceptable limit, triggering automatic concussion protocols.

Rendel Harris]<p>[quote=Hirsute wrote:

Actually, now you mention it, it surely wouldn't be too difficult to incorporate such a sensor into riders' helmets, would it? Then in the event of a crash medics could be alerted to any head deceleration outside the acceptable limit, triggering automatic concussion protocols.

Such devices already exist: https://www.hitrecognition.co.uk/pages/cycling
and have been used in off-road riding: https://www.itv.com/news/border/2024-04-29/new-technology-to-monitor-hea...

What initially went wrong here is that Vlasov was allowed to continue by his team without any medical checks. Perhaps what is needed are set concussion protocols such as used in the NFL and NHL (preferably combined with a device like Hit). As such, the medical team would have X minutes to decide if the rider was safe to continue (with no intervention from team staff) after which the rider could remount if cleared.

The problem then would be they would be at least X minutes further behind the race. So, either 1) the team car would be permitted to drive them to a point where the time gap was restored (plenty of reasons why that option could be impractical) or more likely 2) it would be a case of treating it like a mechanical: tough luck but you have to make your own way back. "It's that or you abandon mate!"

There would be a compulsory hospital checkup for any rider having been assessed that day.

I generally agree with you but as I said above, there is a missing piece of time between the crash and the TV coverage returning to Vlasov remounting and it's possible the mechanic did the basic checks they are trained to do now in that time. He was also very quickly at the medical car so the team may have known he would be reviewed by them.

I think there's a middle road to be found in terms of returning a rider to the peloton once they are cleared: as you say, impractical to put a rider in a car and also the nature of the race must be that every rider rides the same distance, but at least the drafting rules could be relaxed to help the rider get back on the peloton, in fact one of the commisaire motorcycles could be detailed to pace the rider back to where they were before they crashed.

Rendel Harris wrote:

the nature of the race must be that every rider rides the same distance

Although, in practice, often riders with more minor injuries (cuts, road rash, etc.) don't - they're allowed to take a tow on the medical car while they're being treated, which can sometimes be quite a distance. It doesn't seem unreasonable to consider concussion checks to be treatment and, if feasible, allow them to travel in the car while the checks are being done, or if not, to make up the ground lost afterwards.

alexuk wrote:

Maybe he's just not a pu**y?

Luckily people nowadays understand concussion better than you. My mate suffered health problems for two years after a cycling concussion. Luke Rowe's been screwed by his.

Adrenalin. It has a minor pain numbing effect which often hides the seriousness of injuries. That said, there is a limit. It must be a "simple" fracture that doesn't seriously impede the bone (and surrounding musculoskeletal system's) structure as a compound fracture would be much more severe and nigh on impossible to ride on, even fuelled on adrenalin.

This ... 

Quote:

“His head, where he was bleeding, and his elbow, I think these are minor things,”

... shows a shocking lack of understanding of how concussion works. 

Remounting is a critical capability in all cycling  If a pro can not do it unaided after a race incident then they really should be withdrawn. This isn't Roman gladiatorial combat, it's pro sport.