What did I do?
The overarching aim of this PhD was to advance injury and illness epidemiology and surveillance in competitive cycling. To achieve this, the PhD addressed three interrelated research questions, each examined through a thematically organised series of studies.
First, what is currently known about injury and illness epidemiology across competitive cycling disciplines, and where are the key evidence gaps?
Second, can prospective injury surveillance in cycling be complete, and what are the real-world injury and illness patterns across different cycling disciplines when standardised surveillance methods are applied prospectively?
Third, how are injury prevention and risk management understood and enacted within competitive cycling?
These questions were addressed through a thematically organised programme of quantitative and qualitative studies. Together, these studies formed an integrated programme of work aligned with the world body for cycling, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), and its Agenda 2030 objective to strengthen cycling epidemiology and athlete health governance.
Why did I do it?
Cycling is a globally growing sport with 11 broad disciplines and over 40 subdisciplines, each with distinct contextual and physiological demands. Despite cycling’s global popularity and increasing professionalisation, its evidence base on injury and illness has remained fragmented, inconsistent and disproportionately focused on a small number of disciplines. Inconsistencies in injury definitions, exposure reporting and surveillance methodology have limited cross-disciplinary comparability and hindered evidence-based prevention.
The UCI Agenda 2030 explicitly recognises this gap, calling for improved epidemiological research and the establishment of a coordinated injury and illness database, particularly for lesser-studied disciplines. In contrast to sports such as football and rugby, …
