Get on your bike for a healthier feelgood factor
WE all will have our own thoughts as to the World’s greatest sporting event and our own personal favourite.
Olympic and Commonwealth Games, football and rugby World Cups, Wimbledon and The Open can all lay claim to the title, but for the sheer physical and mental demands required of its competitors the Tour de France is hard to beat.
This weekend sees the start of the 104th Tour in Dusseldorf, Germany and will visit Belgium and Luxembourg before heading into France and its famous conclusion as the riders cycle up the Champs Elysees and around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
The Tour can genuinely be said to be the world’s biggest annual sporting event.
It began in 1903 and over 100 years later still boasts massive interest worldwide – particularly in France where the whole country comes to a standstill for the event.
This year’s event will cover 21 stages over 3,540 km in 21 days. Perhaps the uniqueness of the tour is the contrast between the heat, speed and power of the flat time trial stages to the steep and potentially cold of the daunting, energy draining mountain stages in the Pyrenees and Alps.
CIn addition, they have the added incentive of avoiding the other riders as they pass by.
Cuts and abrasions are common with broken bones and head injuries more serious.
As in many sports overuse injuries are frequent especially of the hip, knee and foot and ankle.
Plantar fasciitis, inflammation of the soft tissues which form the arch of the foot, Achilles tendon problems and irritation of the tissue on the outside of the leg from hip to knee called ileo-tibal band syndrome are common problems to those of us who look after their injuries.
Specific cycling injuries include irritation of the nerves running through the arm to the wrist and hand such as carpal tunnel syndrome and the descriptively-named handlebar palsy – each more common when the handlebars are set at an incorrect height.
Similar height issues with the saddle can result in hip and back pain.
Despite the injury risk in professional cycling, as a recreational sport it is hard to beat.
It requires little cost or equipment – a bike and helmet – and with the expansion of cycleways around the country is safe and great fun.
From a health and fitness point of view, it is an excellent combination of aerobic fitness and muscle strength and, like all aerobic exercise, has a wide range of health benefits from prevention of heart disease, cancer and diabetes to the positive effect on stress and mental well-being.