After you rinse the soap off, inspect the abrasion and look for larger pieces of debris, small stones, glass, etc. For a short period of time, you can clean your wounds without as much pain.ģ. Adrenalin and endorphins, your natural painkillers, are pumped into your bloodstream in response to the trauma of crashing. If you can do this part within about 15 minutes of the crash, it won’t hurt quite as much. As much as you don’t want to do this, you are going to have to scrub the wound a bit to get the grit, sand, and debris out of it. When you get home from the ride, or back to your car after a race (you should always carry a first aid kit in your race bag), thoroughly wash the area with soap and water. This helps you determine how serious the wound is and reduces the amount of debris stuck to you.Ģ. After checking to make sure you aren’t more seriously injured or at risk of being hit by a car or another cyclist, use a water bottle to rinse the affected area. Before describing the steps for treating such abrasions, please be aware the recommendations adhere to Red Cross guidelines for treatment of skin abrasions, and I recommend consulting a health care professional for evaluation and treatment after crashes, even seemingly minor ones.ġ. Since road rash is a reality all cyclists have to face at some point, you too need to know how to deal with it. Tonight, the soigneurs working at the Tour are going to be very busy, both bandaging wounds and working the soreness out of bruised and battered bodies. The Tour de France is hard on the immune system, and the added stress of open wounds can spell the beginning of the end by increasing a rider’s susceptibility to a wide range of infections. Keeping wounds clean and bandaged prevents infection and accelerates healing. Properly treating road rash (abrasions caused from sliding on pavement) plays a large role in a rider’s ability to continue racing. It remains to be seen if any riders suffered injuries that will keep them from starting tomorrow, but I can tell you that Lance Armstrong escaped with just some minor cuts and bumps. Following the normal small crashes during the course of a road stage of the Tour de France, the majority of the peloton was involved in a major pileup just inside the final kilometer. There were already a lot of riders sporting bandages at the start of Stage 6 this afternoon, and many more will be swathed with gauze and netting tomorrow. If you choose to be a cyclist, at any level of the sport, you have to be prepared to sacrifice some skin, and you have to know how to care for your wounds. Unfortunately, I know all too well what it’s like to leave a lot of skin on the roads of France, Italy, Belgium, the United States, etc. I wish I didn’t still have scars on my hips, knees, arms, and back from the innumerable falls that came with being a professional cyclist. I wish I didn’t know as much as I do about road rash. Get access to everything we publish when you
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