Romain Bardet, injured, at the finish of the 13th stage of the Tour de France, September 11, 2020. -

Stuart Franklin / POOL / AFP

The International Cycling Union (UCI) adopted its first concussion management protocol on Thursday, a project started over a year ago and relaunched by Romain Bardet's accident on the Tour de France.

Thrown to the ground at 65 km / h downhill, visibly stunned, the rider had climbed back on his bike to cover the last 90 kilometers of the 13th stage, before giving up in the evening once examined in hospital.

The mismanagement of the Bardet case on the Tour accelerated everything

His case illustrates the "difficulty of managing suspicions of concussions in a fast-paced sport", where it is impossible to stop the race to assess a competitor hit in the head, notes Thursday the International Cycling Union (UCI) in its document.

Hence the idea of ​​detection in stages, allowing the most affected riders to get out of the race quickly, without penalizing those who try to get back to the peloton.

The seven experts gathered since September 2019 by the UCI have therefore listed signs of "immediate withdrawal", identifiable without medical training by the first people to arrive at the scene of a fall.

"The concussion protocol is very difficult to apply to cycling"



Paul-Henri Jost, the doctor who was with Romain Bardet when he fell yesterday, looks back on this episode # TDF2020



▶ Follow the race live: https: // t.co/dENYCipji8 pic.twitter.com/DICiAR2xeg

- France tv sport (@francetvsport) September 12, 2020

Quickly detectable “red flags” so as not to influence the race

Convulsions, vomiting, absent gaze, facial injury, disorientation, pain in the neck, headaches, double vision… So many “red flags” synonymous with forced abandonment.

If the runner seems lucid but the shock was violent or his helmet is cracked, the first doctor present on the scene can give him an accelerated assessment, inspired by those in force in team sports.

"What race are we in?

Who won yesterday?

How many kilometers are left?

»: As the seconds go by, there will be a series of typical questions, balance tests, words to remember and numbers to repeat backwards.

The UCI plans two other examinations, this time more complete, the same evening and the next day, "to detect the signs which appear late".

In the event of concussion, a gradual resumption of activity is planned, but runners will be banned from competing for at least seven days after the symptoms disappear (fourteen for juniors).

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