Professional cyclist Lizzy Banks: “there’s not a book on how you treat concussion”
By Josh Wu. This article was initially published in our Concussion Update newsletter; please consider subscribing.
Cycling is the sport responsible for the highest number of concussion-related visits to emergency departments in the U.S. (see article and article). Unfortunately, there is not a lot of follow-through in terms of education about the injury and treatment options for cyclists. British 31-year-old professional cyclist Lizzy Banks can attest to the hardship of recovering from concussions in the biking community after missing one season following a concussion.
In an article for Velo News, Banks states, “I’m getting these messages [from other cyclists]... because there’s no education. There’s nowhere for people to go, there’s no book for how you treat concussion, but there should be.” The article notes that in professional cycling, concussion “makes up between 1.3 and 9.1 percent of injuries in the sport.”
Banks suffered a concussion after a crash at last year’s Strade Bianche competition. Although adrenaline helped her finish the race, concussion symptoms immediately appeared afterward. Her vision became blurry. She bumped into objects in her home and felt disoriented while biking. These symptoms forced her to confront the reality of her crash and the resulting concussion. Thankfully, Banks was able to recover after rehab and is now back on the road.
The unfortunate crash caused Banks to evaluate the current concussion protocol for cyclists. In 2020, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the world governing body for cycling, issued its first Cycling-Specific Sport-Related Concussion protocol. The protocol includes an initial assessment and medical evaluation and a very limited half-page on managing recovery, treatment interventions, and return to race protocol. In Banks’s opinion, “I think the protocol itself is useless. We need education. Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, it’s great. we’ve got a concussion protocol,’ but it’s not really fit for purpose,” she said. “It’s a protocol about not getting back to the races, but it’s not ‘this is how we’re going to treat it.’”
“There are really simple things that you can do to like, assessing the vestibular system, and treating vestibular problems. But people don’t do it. One of my teammates was like,’ oh, I had three crashes last year, and now I get dizzy when I’m in a car.’ And I’m like, ‘well, you should probably do this vestibular rehab.’ People don’t because the education isn’t there. There definitely needs to be an actual treatment protocol but there isn’t.”
The protocol has one sentence on treatment interventions that includes vestibular rehabilitation – but, clearly, more needs to be done to educate people about the symptoms of concussion after a crash, implement new on-site diagnostic tools like eye-tracking technology, and alert cyclists about evidence-based treatment interventions to change the culture among cyclists and promote a safer cycling environment.
Note: Concussion Alliance was founded on the belief that there needs to be more education about this injury and treatment options. Please see our extensive resources in About Concussions, Treatments, Find Providers and in-depth information about specific Populations dealing with this injury.
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