ArticleBMJ open sport & exercise medicine2025
Epidemiology of injury and illness across all the competitive cycling disciplines: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Article in BMJ open sport & exercise medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Development of a secure, standardised and interoperable surveillance platform for race-related injury and illness data within the UCI men's and women's road cycling world tour: a study protocol.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2026Article
- Long-Term Cumulative Effects of Repeated Concussions in Cyclists: A Neurophysiological and Sensorimotor Study.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: The Union Cycliste Internationale, the world cycling governing body, has highlighted its mission to Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological studies. Data sources: PubMed (Medline), Embase and SPORTDiscus were searched in August 2024. Eligibility criteria: All epidemiological studies including information on injuries and/or illness in competitive cycling from inception to August 2024. Results: Forty-four studies were included across the competitive cycling disciplines of Mountain Bike (MTB), road, track, bicycle motocross (BMX) and para cycling. No studies were found for cyclocross, gravel, indoor, trials and esports cycling disciplines. BMX had the highest injury incidence overall, with 4.59 injuries per 365 days (95% CI 4.34 to 4.85), while para-cyclists had the highest illness prevalence at 3.89 illnesses per 365 days (95% CI 3.42 to 4.36). The most common injuries were upper limb injuries, particularly in BMX (65.21% (95% CI 54.50 to 74.65)), followed by road cycling (48.32% (95% CI 46.51 to 50.14)) and track cycling (44.18% (95% CI 43.28 to 45.09)). In road cycling, 14.36% (95% CI 13.12 to 15.69) of injuries were head, neck or face-related. Skin lacerations, abrasions and lesions were the most common injury types across disciplines, with bone fractures being the second most common. Despite a higher prevalence of head, neck and face injuries, road cycling had the lowest incidence of concussions (4.68% (95% CI 4.04 to 5.42)). Gastrointestinal illness had the highest prevalence overall in road cycling (17.90% (95% CI 14.4 to 22.0)), while respiratory illness was most prevalent in Track (31.82% (95% CI 22.29 to 42.61)) and MTB (31.82% (95% CI 22.29 to 42.61)). Conclusion: This systematic review highlights the high prevalence of upper limb injuries across competitive cycling disciplines, particularly in BMX, road and track cycling. Skin lacerations, abrasions and bone fractures were the most common injury types. These findings help inform future injury and illness surveillance studies in cycling disciplines where high-quality epidemiological data are currently lacking and support the development of future injury and illness prevention strategies. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42024502703.
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