Update: Tom Pidcock Returns to Riding 6 Days After Breaking Collar Bone into 5 Pieces in Vehicle Collision

Jun 9, 2021
by James Smurthwaite  

Tom Pidcock has posted a video of himself riding out of the saddle just six days after breaking his collar bone into five pieces in a vehicle collision.

bigquotes6 days ago my collarbone was in 5 pieces and today this is possible! Human bodies are amazing and the steady hands putting who fixed it back together! This gain train has left the station!—Tom Pidcock

photo
photo

This is a truly superhuman recovery and adds credence to the claim made by his coach, Kurt Bogaerts, that he will be back racing by Les Gets on July 4th ahead of the Olympic Games race on July 26. Pidcock was not scheduled to race the XC Cup in Leogang this weekend but he did have to miss the Tour de Suisse road race because of the incident.

It has also now been confirmed that Pidcock sustained the injury following a collision with a car that left his bike snapped in two. A picture was posted by the La Flamme Rouge Twitter account below:

photo

We wish Tom the best in his ongoing recovery and hope to see him back to full fitness by Les Gets.


Original Story

Thomas Pidcock ready to go and looking for that top spot he just missed out on during XCC.

Tom Pidcock has broken his collar bone in a training crash.

An Ineos Grenadiers press release confirms that he underwent surgery at a hospital in Girona this morning and is currently recovering from the incident.

Pidcock made an incredibly strong start to the XC racing season by battling through the field in Albstadt then picking up his first elite win in Nove Mesto. He is also likely to take Great Britain’s elite male Olympic spot and will be one of the favourites to secure a medal in Tokyo.

Coach Kurt Bogaerts said: “Tom is doing well and is already looking ahead and focussed on his rehabilitation. While this means he won’t be able to start at the Tour de Suisse this week as planned, he will get back to training as soon as possible and prepare for the rest of the season.”

Pidcock was scheduled to race the Tour de Suisse road race then the Les Gets World Cup in preparation for the Games. We have reached out to Tom to see how this will affect his Olympic preparation and will update this article with more information as we get it.

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108 Comments
  • 98 0
 Tyler Hamilton managed to ride the TdF with a broken collar bone from a stage 1 crash (and win a stage).. doping questions aside, seems roadies are a pretty tough bunch.
  • 132 1
 No kidding. I think the popular perception of road cyclists is that they are softies who shave their legs, which is pretty silly considering their sport comes down (in large part) to who can endure the most pain for the longest.
  • 87 9
 @eblackwell: yeah, most bullying from gravity guys towards lycra riders is for the most part a projection of insecurities. It is fun and all, but with time it gets boring.
  • 38 0
 Geraint Thomas also finished a TdF with a broken pelvis, some of them are seriously hardcore.
  • 45 1
 Agreed - professional road racers are amongst the toughest and craziest athletes on the planet (not to be confused with the local mamils you see around town). Lawson Craddock finished the tour a few years ago with a broken shoulder blade and it feels like theres a story every year out of the tours that match or exceed the NHL. The balls these guys have to rally down wet mountain descents on 25mm tires doing 70mph or to do a bunch sprint at 45mph while taking elbows from another rider is just insane.
  • 19 1
 There’s a big difference between a small crack and a bone broken into multiple pieces even though they are both referred to as “broken”.
  • 14 0
 I’m pretty sure Tyler Hamilton had to have dental work after that tdf as he’d ground down several of his teeth gurning through the pain.

Madman
  • 12 1
 Winning with one nut?
  • 11 0
 @Sambikes11: That was the story I remember but seems he had 11 teeth capped after crashing at the start of the 2002 Giro d'Italia where he fractured his humerous at the start and finished 2nd overall . 11 teeth capped through 3 weeks of grinding then more dental the following year with his TdF collar bone teeth grinding.
Maybe that was where Dentist bikes started!
  • 6 7
 Not to take anything away from Tyler, but I doubt he or anyone would be able to ride a mountain bike on an XCO course with a broken collarbone.
  • 4 0
 Pidcock isn't exactly a typical roadie
  • 2 0
 @PNdubRider: Talk about overcoming adversity! Anything is possible!
  • 1 1
 @Narro2: it definitely is fun
  • 1 0
 @pancakeflatted: Well he's not a roadie - not when he also rides Cyclocross, and XCO....
  • 3 0
 @Narro2: yup couldn't agree more it does get boring after the hundredth time.
  • 2 0
 @eblackwell: I think the only group that gives them an honest run for their money are Nordic skiers, just completely savage.
Thats coming from a "never roadie" and reformed alpine racer.
  • 8 0
 @hatton: They've done lots of clinical studies on which athletes can endure the most pain, and professional road cyclists win in almost every one. Mountain bikers are tough too, but you can't argue against something like TdF with 20 or so days of 4 hours of extreme pain management. You can make fun of lycra riders all you want, but you can't argue against their insane aversions to pain.
  • 10 0
 @hatton: Haha, had to google mamils. Was not disappointed.

Ya, your typical local roadie has as much in common with pro road racers as your local dudebro jerk has with pro DH riders.
  • 2 2
 @PNdubRider: Officially, the Uniballer has won nothing...
How about LeMond coming back from getting shot in a hunting accident, with buckshot still in his body and winning the Tour twice? Before EPO was a thing.
  • 13 3
 Chris Froome won 4 TDFs while at 0% fat and 0% muscle mass, consisting of only bones, skin, and a gallon of research chemicals, despite science suggesting a human could not possibly exist in this state
  • 2 0
 @dthomp325: yeah, this.....a hairline fracture is just as clinically "BROKEN" as a highly displaced compound fracture.....one is rideable, the other not even close no matter how tough you are...obviously many breaks are in-between these two extremes.
  • 4 0
 @hatton: you forgot the part about the exposure in the mountains and how until recently it was on rim brakes...
Alot of those roads have no guard rails. The cost of failure is pretty high.
  • 3 1
 @Narro2: but those roadie arms..
  • 4 0
 Also, it takes a really strong, rugged, durable body to not have an effing heart attack with that level of PEDs coursing through your veins.
  • 3 0
 Yeah dude, any mtb rider just needs to go watch a crit race to know roadies are no joke. Also descending a mt road at 60kph-80kph+ In just lycra and a minimal lid is scary.
  • 1 1
 @mrkkbb: Emily Batty completed the 2012 London Olympics XCO days after breaking her collar bone in a training crash!!
  • 2 1
 @Narro2: It's been boring for a while now. These days when people give lycra a hard time it's more to be homophobic under the guise of "Just joking around, Bro.".

Naw, Man. I see that dog whistle they're blowing. I'm done with it.
  • 26 0
 The crash literally broke his bike in half. Amazed he wasn't more injured. (Proof: twitter.com/laflammerouge16/status/1400138743995043843 )
  • 6 0
 Shit...By the looks of that front wheel I imagine a car pulled out of that lot and he hit the broad side of it going pretty fast.
  • 1 0
 @mwglow: No kidding. That doesn't look like a fall down go boom crash, more like a collision with a car or a large stationary object.
  • 1 0
 I see more than two halfs here!
  • 3 6
 That’s a spectacular amount of wreckage, and the description is very vague.
They found him unconscious, on the ground, beside a mangled bike!
  • 50 1
 The collar bone will only take 4 to 6 weeks to fully heal, unfortunately replacing the bike will take much longer and may be out for the season.
  • 5 0
 @onawalk: it said he was found conscious
  • 3 0
 @onawalk: please read the tweet again one more time...
  • 3 0
 @mwglow: agreed I don’t think you can break a wheel like that in a crash without colliding with something.
  • 1 0
 Another road victim of the Pinarello TT bike
  • 5 1
 @IluvRIDING: Technically not possible to have more than two halves of one bike.
  • 7 0
 This looks bad. And then he will even be fined by the UCI for throwing away his bottle. Poor guy
  • 2 0
 He said he's "born to race mountain bikes"...stay off the f*cking TT rig Tom!
  • 1 0
 @Curculio: lol - no
  • 1 0
 @Curculio: lol
  • 1 0
 @Curculio:
  • 1 0
 @Zimbaboi: my mistake,
Dyslexia
Thanks for the catch
  • 1 0
 @prevail: yep,
My bad, apologies
  • 18 0
 He'll be fine for the olympics. He's young. He'll be back on his trainer in days and back on his bike in weeks.
  • 15 0
 Yeah, he'll be back in the cockpid in no time.
  • 1 0
 @MOBrules: nice!
  • 13 0
 Pidcock = Coming back from a collarbone break
Nino = Not quite N1NO
MDVP = MDVP lacking MTB time

*ANNOUNCEMENT*

THE TOKOYO 2021 OLYMPIAD MENS MTB RACE IS NOW WIDE OPEN

Mathias Flückiger... "Hold my beer"
  • 10 1
 Rob Warner must be lying in the fetal position in his shower with all his clothes on and cold water running whilst crying uncontrollably with Pidcock being out of the running currently! Bad Jokes aside, heal well and heal strong Pidcock!
  • 13 2
 Everyone in the XC field just got so lucky this kid is a beast!!
  • 2 2
 the next guy up (van der pole) will destroy the season though.
  • 6 1
 @Narro2: XC field: "Sweet, Pidcock is out, now we can fight for second behind MVDP instead of fighting for 3rd behind both of them"
  • 4 3
 @freestyIAM: yeah except No, we were forgeting Nino, hehe.
  • 8 0
 This specially hits hard the Fantasy League players, they no longer have a surefire podium rider for under $400k right?
  • 2 0
 Exactamundo! I'm going to have to rework my budget for next race. I suspect there are a lot of other players that are going to have to do likewise.
  • 1 0
 @Augustus-G: He was not gonna ride the next Worldcup round anyways, so maybe his crash saved Fantasy League players from 0 points?
  • 1 0
 @Jango997: I thought Pidcock was planning to and MVP was not going to ride Leogang.
I need to recheck some interviews tomorrow.
  • 2 0
 @Augustus-G: That was his initial plan. But he then changed it and decided (or was told by his team) to ride Tour of Swiss instead.
  • 1 0
 @Jango997: I just found that on the Italy 24 News site from about 10 days ago.
www.italy24news.com/sports/cycling/31020.html

Thanks for the heads-up.
  • 1 0
 @Augustus-G:please choose Mathieu, he did a great job
  • 1 0
 @maianhkha15091981: Be my guest, after you.....
  • 6 0
 Hurries to find XC fantasy page, sees its still not linked from the Fantasy tab... Gaaaaahhhh!
  • 2 0
 Go to the fantasy tab and add xc to the end of the URL in the browser. Fantasy XC is a second class citizen still ;-(
  • 5 0
 Ah man, I’m sure he’s in great hands. All the best for the recovery! (Can’t let his brother catch up!)
  • 5 1
 Did he get hit by a car? it looks like his front wheel is destroyed, indicating it either got run over, or he absolutely smashed something head on.
  • 1 0
 It also looks like you didn't read the article.
  • 1 0
 @nozes: The original story did not say anything about what he hit, or what hit him.
  • 1 0
 I broke both of my collarbones in the last 5 years. The first one on a car (their fault), the second on a tree (my fault). Both fixed with metalwork. I recognize that I'm not an orthopedic surgeon and that Tom is younger than me and paid to ride a bike but I still think this is a little early to be loading the bone or the metalwork. Doing press-ups on it is definitely too soon! Fingers crossed the healing goes well though and I'll be cheering for him in Les Gets and Tokyo.
  • 4 0
 At least he's only a rookie, and it's not career-ending. he has a massive future ahead of him.
  • 2 0
 that bike looks like it was run over... You'd think the British fans would've realized every time they gas up any promising sportsmans they've pretty much doomed it
  • 2 0
 Damn that sucks to hear. I haven't been into xc racing much but some of the recent redbull highlights got me super excited. This dude was crazy. Hope he heals quickly!
  • 3 0
 @jamessmurthwaite in better news @cpendrel won the 'Valle di Casies Trophy' today www.instagram.com/p/CPoCRKIl5QL
  • 3 0
 Damn that sucks! He was on fire. It was going to be an awesome season.
  • 1 0
 July 27th, he's got ~7 weeks. Plenty of time... well, sorta. If he gets it plated he should be able to keep training on the road if he's careful. Still in it, probably.
  • 1 0
 This new rod option seems to expedite things even further: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmwpd3g25-0
I hope he heals quickly!
  • 2 0
 @aquanut: That's cool. I got the tightrope option two months ago and I'm feeling great: www.arthrex.com/shoulder/ac-tightrope-technique. Generally used for AC separation, which I had, but it also pulled my fracture back into place.

photos.app.goo.gl/Jez7QeZXCf38cAWH9
  • 4 2
 buuu, My Ineos jersey just arrived this weekend, gonna use it tomorrow for my weekly XC laps.
  • 5 0
 I meant DownCountry laps.
  • 2 0
 So now there's a decent chance that MVDP wins most of the rest of the XC races this season
  • 3 0
 He's from Yorkshire. Should be back on the bike later today.
  • 1 0
 If a rider can be muscling a 300hp MotoGP bike around the day after collar bone surgery, I'm sure this won't be too much of a setback.
  • 1 0
 I broke my collar bone into 5 pieces as well once... I was off the bike for 3 weeks after surgery. I couldn't imagine 6 days...
  • 3 0
 I want to see a before and after xray
  • 1 0
 I broke mine a few years ago and was 5 miles from the van but miraculously holding the bars was the only place it didn’t hurt !
  • 1 0
 Honestly how the fuck do they manage that, I dislocated my elbow and BAM 2 months without riding, fracture ribs BOOM 1.5 months without riding
  • 2 0
 Being hurt sucks! Get well soon!
  • 2 1
 Perhaps something more sinister... an extremely obsessed competitor who is also vying for gold at Tokyo?
  • 2 0
 "And he cried like Nancy Kerrigan."
  • 1 0
 He's probably already plated and on the bike again. With the surgery they are back at it RACING in 3-4 weeks.
  • 1 0
 i just want to know when he and dick pound are coming out with a mixtape....?
  • 1 0
 What an absolute animal! Super excited to see Pidcock race this season and glad it hasn't interrupted his training too much.
  • 3 2
 Bet all the participants of the XC World Cup are celebrating!
  • 2 3
 But the winner will always have that asterisk in their mind.
  • 1 0
 Duct tape will fix it... Wink
  • 4 4
 What's XC? Asking for an AM friend.
  • 5 0
 I'm sure your DC buddy can chime in!
  • 6 0
 It's what you do on that new Santa Cruz bike.
  • 1 0
 @smartyiak: Downcountry addict?
  • 1 0
 Bummer..
  • 2 3
 No olympics. Tough break.
  • 7 0
 7 weeks until opening ceremonies. He will be fine by then.
  • 2 0
 Nevermind, miss read that, Might still be good for olympics
  • 3 0
 @rockyflowtbay: With Surgery he will be back on his road bike in 2 weeks if not sooner. Its a set back, but it wont prevent him from competing at Tokyo
  • 1 0
 @scissors888: Agreed; but I'd be very surprised to see him on the Start Line for Leogang.
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