New Study Reports Road Cycling Causes More Serious Injuries than Mountain Biking

The study found “injuries from road cycling are less frequent but more severe than those from mountain biking accidents.” Road cyclists also demonstrated a higher proportion of serious head injuries and severe lesions.

The findings show that road crashes accounted for 33% of all cases, but had a median Injury Severity Score (ISS) of 6. In comparison, the mountain bike crashes accounted for 67% of all cases and had a median ISS of 4.

The ISS is a scale derived from Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) scores, which categorize injuries into six body regions. These regions include the head, face, neck, chest, abdomen, spine, upper extremity, and lower extremity.

The ISS is the sum of the squares of the highest AIS code from each of the three most severely injured body regions.

Road cycling-related accidents showed a higher percentage of upper-extremity injuries in all locations, except the upper extremity. Prevalent injury locations were the upper extremity, followed by the lower extremity, face, thorax, head, spine, neck, and abdomen.

The study, published in September 2025. also revealed that “age appears to be a significant risk factor in cycling accidents, particularly among road cyclists.” The older the cyclist was, the more likely the injury was to be severe.

The study attributes this to “a longer reaction time, which makes it more difficult to avoid obstacles, bone fragility, acoustic or visual loss, or higher presence of pathologies, which can determine the association between age and severe injuries.”  For more information, visit https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-17754-z