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news
Richard Branson cycling crash (Instagram)Richard Branson bloodied by cycling crash after hitting pothole and falling "hard"
Billionaire business mogul Richard Branson was left injured with a hematoma on his hip and a "nasty cut elbow" after hitting a pothole while cycling in the British Virgin Islands and crashing "hard".
Branson wrote on Instagram, sharing a picture from the roadside: "Took quite a big tumble while cycling in Virgin Gorda a little while ago! I hit a pothole and crashed hard, resulting in another hematoma on my hip and a nasty cut elbow, but amazingly nothing broken.
"We were cycling with Alex Wilson, who fell after me, but thankfully he was ok as well. I'm counting myself very lucky, and thankful for keeping myself active and healthy. After all, the brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all!"
The 73-year-old has history with cycling crashes and said "I thought I was going to die" after a 2016 incident which left his bike "completely destroyed" and thrown off a cliff in the British Virgin Islands, where he owns the 74-acre Necker Island.
That fall happened after he hit a 'sleeping policeman' piece of road furniture while descending a hill in the dark.
"The next thing I knew, I was being hurled over the handlebars and my life was literally flashing before my eyes," he said. "I really thought I was going to die. I went flying head-first towards the concrete road, but fortunately my shoulder and cheek took the brunt of the impact, and I was wearing a helmet that saved my life.
"My bike went flying off the cliff and disappeared. We've since recovered the crumpled bicycle, completely destroyed. My cheek has been badly damaged and my knee, chin, shoulder and body severely cut."
And in 2021 the businessman, who was knighted in 2000, was hospitalised after another "colossal" bike crash while taking part in an event on one of the Caribbean islands.
Branson believed the brakes on his bike failed, and said that in his opinion there was "no question" his cycle helmet had saved his life.
In the same year, in a bizarre episode detailed on our live blog, Virgin Galactic admitted that Branson had not rode a bike to the Spaceport America launch site where his space flight launch happened.
"The footage of Sir Richard Branson shown during the event on Sunday was pre-recorded and misidentified in the broadcast. We regret the error and any confusion it may have caused," a Virgin Galactic official confirmed.
It’s a beautiful day to go to space. We’ve arrived at @Spaceport_NM. Get ready to watch LIVE at 7:30 am PT | 10:30 am ET | 3:30 pm BST https://t.co/PcvGTmA661 #Unity22 pic.twitter.com/4KjGPpjz0M
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) July 11, 2021
Trek Bicycles claimed Branson rode one of its custom-made bikes on launch day, but it turned out the clip, which Branson shared to Twitter and was published by Virgin with the line 'earlier today', was actually from a week earlier. After the flight, Branson said, "It's so awesome to arrive on a bicycle, across this beautiful New Mexico countryside."
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
Latest Comments
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They're making helmets sentient now?
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And good chat! I'm going on Zwift now. Have a good weekend.
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136 comments
I've taken personal responsibility for my carbon footprint. Have you?
Posting opinions on the internet does precisely nothing for the climate crisis.
Unless you've done something tangible them I'm afraid it's you who is the problem regardless of what wing you consider yourself on.
We say 'haematoma' and 'haemoglobin', unless there's been some mass capitulation like there was with 'sulfur'. I suppose the vague implication of 'haematoma' is that it's a collection of blood which could (not necessarily should) be sucked out, as opposed to multiple small abounts of blood between the muscle fibres (not fibers).
like when people exaggerate a headache into a migraine?
Or a cold into 'flu'- this has led to the unhelpful belief that flu is a bit of a joke, and not something you die of.
Indeed. "e" and "ae" (or rather "æ" - compose-key + a + e on some systems) are different vowels with different sounds.
Well, I tend to say "bruising" instead as that's what it looks like. However, maybe "ecchymosis" would be the most impressive term to use if it's over 10mm (I got that from the Wikipedia page and it annoys me that "mm" is a measurement of length rather than area).
It also snaps my cranks when people mis-label a bad cold as "flu" - if you're not bed-ridden then it's most likely not flu. (However, I eventually caught Covid whilst on holiday in Lisbon and mistook it for a hangover and apart from skipping one evening meal, didn't really suffer much from it)
Could be lupus
(PS: sorry - been binge watching 'House' on one of the streaming services)
(PPS: it is never lupus)
Yes, none of that Amerikun spelling please.
Perhaps the British Vigin Isles might have to start taxing people to fix the roads
That's the first thing I thought. Paying no tax might seem great if you are super rich, but you still have to interact with the rest of the world the moment you leave your residence.
One of the best things I ever heard about tax, not sure of the originator: "You have to decide whether it's better to have a Ferrari but only have cart tracks to drive it on or a Porsche but the roads are all in excellent condition."
If the Porsche is a 911 then good roads won't help you, it is still programmed to head backwards into the nearest tree!
He seems to have a lot of crashes.
Wishing him a speedy recovery and hope he gets back on the bike soon.
Is it just me, or does "hematoma" sound a lot worse than "bruising"?
Yes, yes it does.
I thought there were medically defined differences that often get conflated, like when people exaggerate a headache into a migraine?
Haematoma is 100 km to bruising's 62.13 miles, the same thing but sounds far more impressive!
ETA Having looked it up out of curiosity there is actually a difference, a haematoma is blood pooling after leaking from larger blood vessels, sometimes forming clots, that can be felt as a lump, whereas bruising involves small amounts of blood leaking from smaller capillaries. I stand corrected!
Yes, I had a Heamatoma after a bike crash last year (slipped on a patch of oil and end ended up bashing my hip badly on the kerb). Was damn painful and I was concerned about the swelling (as well as the general cuts and bruises I'd gained) so got seen by the nurse at the GP who diagnosed it as a Haematoma. It did go down after a few weeks
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