Originally Posted by
Bandera
Oddly enough this is my 51st season in cycling as a sport.
My 1st coach raced on the board tracks pre-WWII and I competed in ABL of A, USCF and NORBA racing on the track, road, 'cross and MTB for a good long while.
When you say "
we did not fall off our bikes" I have to disagree, race crashes happened in every discipline of the sport "back when" and I have the collarbones to prove it. 
There was no free lunch in physics back when, bike handling skills were not magically endowed on all at the time, people did stupid stuff, **** just happened and we were willing to take risks that didn't work out so well sometimes. Kind of like today, no doubt.
It's not 1969 anymore, and your version of it never was in my racing experience either.
-Bandera
OK, you guys are all right and I'm wrong. Cycling is dangerous. Real dangerous. Inherently so. Cannot be made non-dangerous.
Remember that as the field on the start line gets smaller and smaller. Remember that when you can't get a closure or a permit. Remember that when no one will write you insurance. Continue to self-identify as foolhardy daredevils and see who cares about you.
Slightly more respect is due Bandera. Who has broken collarbones. The classic cycling injury. In my memory collarbones was the normal worst case scenario (no motor vehicles involved). After the first one no need to even see a doctor. If young and healthy back on bike in two or three weeks. I only raced about 150 times, was not good at it. Happier in support roles. Broke one collar in a MTB race going down a ski hill. One broken on a training ride in stuff happens mode. That one was good in a week and a half even though I was past 40, it was not a bad fall. Other than that two motor vehicles succeeded in making me get a grand total of 43 stitches. That is the entire injury report for 400,000 miles. There are now club rides with worse injury reports every weekend. I hope there are a few racing who are still safe, I know more than a few who would see my lifetime injury list as not much for a single season. The severe injuries, surgeries, life changing crashes were very rare in past. What I said above about no ambulance parked at Northbrook is absolutely true, there was no need. When that service arrived in later 80s it was for a reason. And by the time the ambulance arrived the bleachers were empty. I still remember every seat taken and hundreds of standees. Because the racers put on a good show. A good clean show with no blood.
Including falls when a little kid and being knocked off bike by motor vehicles (usually without injury), racing, a few thousand club rides, I have a total of ten or twelve falls. Laugh as much as you want. If you fall more often it's on you.