Inside the peloton

: An exploration into the culture of competitive road cycling with reference to masculinity, risk and injury, with a principle focus on concussion

Abstract

In recent years, concerns pertaining to sports-related concussion have become more visible within the mainstream media and entered the cultural consciousness of western societies. Research has shown that brain trauma can lead to a range of neurological, physiological, psychological, and social issues. Yet, despite these concerns dating back to the 1920’s, limited progress has been made in the prevention and reduction of these injuries in many sporting contexts. Importantly, much of this increasing concern and research has been focused on team sport contexts such as football and rugby. Competitive road cycling has been largely overlooked in the concussion crisis until very recently, and academic research has somewhat neglected this area. Further, cultural aspects of competitive cycling, such as masculinity, have also been overlooked, particularly in how these aspects relate to injury management.

As such, this interdisciplinary thesis was concerned with exploring the culture of competitive road cycling with reference to masculinity, risk and injury with a principle focus on concussion. The thesis adopts a four-study approach to achieve this, with the aim to provide a comprehensive insight into concussion in competitive road cycling. Study 1 comprised of a qualitative content analysis of social media data to gain an insight to the social and cultural engagement with concussion within the competitive road cycling community. Study 2 adopted a quantitative approach, drawing on a self-report survey of 118 UK cyclists to capture concussion knowledge and attitudes. Study 3 also used a quantitative approach to investigate road cyclist’s relationship with masculinity. Finally, Study 4 involved semi-structured interviews with 8 athletes to gain an understanding of their perspectives on the sport, risk and concussion.

The findings suggest that competitive cyclists hold problematic attitudes towards concussion management, which I argue the culture of the sport is highly influential in constructing these attitudes. Whilst findings suggest sound knowledge of concussion amongst competitive cyclists, significant misperceptions were found as well as gaps in knowledge. The thesis concludes that serious cultural change and official action is needed to bring competitive road cycling in line with the current zeitgeist and concussion crisis.

Date of Award	5 May 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Winchester
Supervisor	Eric Anderson (Supervisor), John Batten (Supervisor) & Howard Hurst (Supervisor)