ON DOCTOR’S ORDERS

As I sat in the waiting room of my doctor’s surgery, dreading having my worries dismissed because I was there with a cycling injury, the sight of my GP’s bike helmet hanging on the back of the door instantly dissolved my fears. I hoped that, as a cycling medic, she would ‘get’ why cycling mattered and sympathise with my frustration at being sidelined from the sport I love, while doing her best to help me back on the bike. And she did.

Doctors seem to love cycling. The Whitfield Surgery in Dundee, Scotland, has just bought its own fleet of electric bikes for home visits. Bike racks outside hospitals are rammed, and when timetrial start sheets used to include titles, a surprising number of names were prefixed “Dr”. So why not make the most of our sport being full of health experts?

We thought we should quiz a selection of them to get their unique insight into how to be smartly and safely healthconscious as a cyclist. What would a cycling doctor do? What would he or she advise a fellow rider?

Seven bike-loving medics spanning A&E, orthopedics, endocrinology, psychiatry, sport and general practice agreed to get involved. This is their advice on how to stay healthy and injury-free over the coming Covid winter.

1 DON’T LET COVID KIBOSH YOUR CYCLING

We can all reel off our own personal list of the ways cycling benefits us, and doctors are no different. GP Dr David