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The risks of cycling
The death of a professional cyclist during the Paris-Roubaix sheds a new light on the health risks of cycling
Published by Silvia Cerisara on 25/04/18
After the sudden death of Belgian cyclist Michael Goolaerts, 23, during the notorious Paris-Roubaix race, there is a new interest on the risks of endurance exercises and cycling in particular, as some experts claim it can seriously damage the heart. These claims follow the news of the caus of death of Goolaerts which was in fact heart attack, although whether doping was actually the culprit still needs to be clarified, but what is worrying is the fact that he suffered such a condition at such a young age.
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Tristan Perks, 25, employee at Cycle Republic and professional cyclist does think endurance sports can be harmful in some cases, but also shared is view on why some people are more prone than others to suffer from such conditions as heart attacks while exercising. He said: “I think that with some people it’s programmed that it’s going to happen, because there’s millions and millions of cyclists cycling high intensity every single day and I think that was just a freak accident, I think he was just pushing his body across the limit.”
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“People die during the London marathon every single year but they just don’t cover it. When I did the London Prudential Cycle, which is a hundred miles charity cycle, someone had a heart attack and died, and it was brought up in the news for like half a day, but because this guy is a high profile cyclist he has made loads of media attention,” added Perks.
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There have also been books and researches on this matter and on the health consequence that prolonged high intensity exercises have on the human body, but no one has come to a definite conclusion yet.
“You can give yourself a heart attack if you massively over exhort yourself, some people can have genetic heart defects that don’t manifest themselves until they really push themselves, you can tear the heart muscles and all sorts of stuff. I would say that in that kind of case the average person isn’t going to be able to push themselves to an extend where it would do that, as an average person you will only really injure yourself if you make a massive change in your exercise regime, but if you ease into it then your body should be fine with it,” said cyclist Brett Greenwell, 34, who agrees with Perks on the fact that some people are genetically more likely than others to develop certain conditions.
Whether cycling can actually damage your body’s health still needs to be agreed on, but in the meantime it is suggested to take every form of exercise slowly and, most importantly, to listen to the body to understand its needs.