Originally Posted by
Tony P.
Orthopedists routinely recommend recumbent or stationary bike use after knee replacement but I've never read of anyone approve competitive cycling, and for good reason. First off, artificial knees can withstand injury but damage to your knee area can be catastrophic because multiple operations can leave you with permanent damage to muscle cover and structural bone / quad support. Second, while biking is generally seen as a low impact activity, peddling while standing can place tremendous stress on the knee due to a combination of lateral bike movement and constant weight shifts. I don't do criteriums but would guess the risk of injury is significant; I'll leave evaluation of the risk to others. It may be, though, that knee replacement and criteriums don't mix well.
First off -- yeah, I wouldn't race with an artificial joint. Not built for crashes, and one is in less control of crashy future in a race than solo.
I also want to say that the danger of
bad crashes in crits is probably overstated in comparison to road races (unless someone has data). Generally I've low-sided in crits and been fine other than skin, but I have crashed in three crits and only in one RR. It seems I'm most likely to crash in a corner in a crit, and low-siding. Road race crashes can be really messed up when its a lot of dudes jammed into a single lane and the back wants to go fast and the front doesn't -- I've seen more ambulances show up to road races than crits, and I've probably race 10x more crits than RRs. I'm open to being swayed the other way with some actual data, but generally saying we should question the notion that crits are crash-happy ICU festivals.