From Nature:
According to a paper in the recent issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine "Acute Cervical Spine Injuries in Mountain Biking: A Report of 3 Cases" [subscription required, alas], mountain bikers are at risk of serious injury. Wow, what a breakthrough finding.
But there's more.
Risk factors
Risk factors for serious injury include:
- excessive speed
- unfamiliar terrain
- equipment failure
- gender
- inattentiveness
- riding beyond one's ability
Still pretty obvious.
Link
But it appears that the link between mountain biking injuries and paraplegia may not be so obvious - to both riders and doctors. The paper includes one case in which
physicians didn't spot the spine injury until the patient became conscious and complained that he couldn't move his limbs.
What the … ?!?
As the reviewer in Nature observes, that is "distinctly sobering".