Mindless bravery is the wrong response to head injury
Skujins’ ordeal is a reminder not to praise riders who remount after a crash without being assessed, writes Tom Cary
Skujins was staggering like a punchdrunk boxer after an uppercut from Joshua
Courageous. Brave. Hard as nails. All words used to describe Geraint Thomas after the Team Sky rider showed admirable grit to get back on his bike after a multi-rider pile-up in the Giro d’italia last Sunday, which left the Welshman with a nasty dose of road rash and a dislocated shoulder.
Thomas, who was lying second overall at the time, lost five minutes on the stage, tumbling down the general classification. It was a body blow in every sense after months of spartan training camps and quinoa salads, yet he hardly made a fuss. Two days later, still banged up, Thomas went out and finished second in a 40km time trial to surge back into top-10 contention. It was an astonishing performance, and yes, gutsy and plucky and all the rest.
Six thousand miles away, another scene was playing out at another race. If you have not yet watched the video of Toms Skujins, a Latvian rider with Cannondale- Drapac, attempting to get back on his bike following a high-speed crash at the Tour of California, be warned that it is pretty distressing. Staggering about like a punch-drunk boxer after a particularly meaty uppercut from Anthony Joshua, it was clear to everyone watching that Skujins was in no fit state to continue. Or at least, almost everyone. The neutral service mechanic arriving first on the scene did nothing to stop Skujins remounting his bike and attempting to set off again. Nor did he a second time, after Skujins had fallen flat on his face at the first attempt and narrowly avoided colliding with the next group of riders.
Mercifully, Skujins did no further damage to himself or to anyone else, and was pulled over by a team car a few minutes later and sent to hospital, where he was diagnosed with concussion and a broken collarbone. But the controversy, which lit up social media, should have a far longer-lasting impact on professional cycling.
Concussion is, of course, a hot topic across all sports right now.
Whether it is Gisele Bundchen revealing (in an unguarded interview this week) that her husband, the New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, suffered multiple concussions last year, or the study discussed on the Today programme which suggested a simple exercise routine might reduce the incidences of concussion in young rugby players, sports are under pressure like never before to get on top of the issue.
Cycling has a long way to go. Logistically, it is uniquely difficult; the distances involved, the remoteness, trying to get a qualified medic to a stricken rider in a timely and appropriate manner (some consider the mechanic in the Skujins incident blameless as he was not qualified to make a medical assessment, although you hardly needed to be a doctor to see that
Skujins was unfit to ride – it was akin to not taking the keys off a potential drunk driver).
But there is a cultural issue, too. Pain and the ability to suffer through it are such an intrinsic part of cycling. We lionise those who – like Thomas – get up off the deck and grit their teeth, comparing them favourably with footballers who roll around in mock agony at the slightest contact. And that grit, that courage, deserves recognition (albeit it opens up a potential Pandora’s Box of other problems, notably surrounding the use of painkillers and performance-enhancing drugs).
Perhaps, however, there needs to be greater celebration of sanity over risk-taking; greater awareness of the longterm risks to which riders are exposing themselves and others when they remount without proper assessment.
Skujins did not need to get back on his bike to prove how hard he was.
And he certainly should not have been allowed to.