Post summary
Lance Armstrong tells us how to stay safe while cycling.
Watch the clip of our conversation about cycling safety above (click the top video/image to watch).
The clip is from Lance’s great podcast, The Forward, which I recently appeared on. Listen to our entire conversation here (we covered a lot of great topics: fitness, not drinking, cycling, the power of outdoor exercise, why we both hate cold plunges, a big adventure I have coming up, and more).
If you prefer reading over watching, I’ve summarized Lance’s points and added more research in the text below.
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Audio/podcast version
The Post
I recently chatted with Lance Armstrong on his podcast, The Forward. (Listen to or watch the entire episode.)
Lance and I became friends about a year ago after we went for a long ruck in Austin and got hopelessly lost in the woods.
I was just back in Austin, so Lance and I got in a great workout and recorded a podcast. Cycling came up during our conversation, so I decided to turn the tables and ask him about cycling and cars.
I’ve always been interested in road cycling.
It’s a hell of a way to build your health and endurance—it gets you outside and cranking yet puts minimal impact on your body. The lack of impact on your joints makes it more sustainable and is also why cyclists generally have the best endurance markers of any athletes1.
But there’s a catch. One big thing about cycling holds me back: Cars. Speeding cars driven by texting, distracted humans.
According to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1,105 bicyclists were killed in motor-vehicle traffic crashes in 2022, a 13% increase from 976 in 2021.
A study on accidents in Europe found “2035 cyclists died in Europe in 2019. Furthermore, the relative proportion of seriously injured cyclists also increased from 7 percent in 2010 to 9 percent in 2019.”
The vast majority of these cycling deaths, over 70 percent, involve vehicles.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission also reports 405,411 emergency department-treated injuries associated with bicycles.
Of course, wearing a helmet helps.
One review found that wearing a helmet decreased head injuries by 60 percent and brain injuries by 58 percent. It found that “Fatal injuries were shown to decrease significantly by a prominent 73 percent if the cyclist was wearing a helmet.”
So, yes, wear a helmet. But the thing is, a dome of hard plastic capping your head will only help you so much when your neighbor the accountant, behind the wheel of his lifted, supercharged Ford Raptor (which he of course has never driven off-road), decides he must send an email while driving and slams into you at 45 miles an hour.
Lance has spent more time riding roads than perhaps any other human alive and, he’s still kicking. So I figured he’d have some wisdom about staying safe. His answers surprised me and might get me out on a bike …
Watch the video above to see his answer. I’ve also quoted him, summarized his advice, and added more research below.
Lance’s advice for riding safer
Ride a gravel bike
“I ride a gravel bike, which can pretty much ride over anything. If there’s a sidewalk, I’m riding on the sidewalk. If there’s a little dirt path (on the side of the road), I’m riding on that dirt path,” Lance said.
Gravel bikes give you access to more space. They can ride places traditional road bikes can’t.
There isn’t much data comparing the accident rates of gravel versus road cycling.
But researchers in Australia did find that gravel bike accidents tend to be minor and result from terrain and rider errors. Road cycling accidents, on the other hand, are often the result of other people, not the cyclist—mainly, drivers. And when those accidents occur, they can be more catastrophic.
Lance rides a Ventum Gravel Bike.
Avoid long, straight roads
“One thing I tend to avoid are straight roads. Anytime the road is long and straight, people get distracted. If you put drivers on a twisty, turny road, they tend to be less distracted (and more likely to see cyclists) because they have to be more focused on driving. So I avoid long straight roads like the plague.”
I searched the literature for research on this. There haven’t been many studies on the topic. But one analysis of auto accidents did find:
“Setting aside all other risk factors, and assuming a constant traffic volume, curvy roads make safer roads. Why are more frequent curves safer? Traffic volume could be inherently lower on curvy roads if drivers seek out straighter roads that can accommodate higher speed. Drivers may slow down and pay more attention on curvy roads than they would on straighter roads with more infrequent curves.”
Use Strava’s Heatmap feature
Lance moved to Austin in 1989. Back then, the roads around town didn’t have much traffic. “But it’s just not like that any more,” Lance told me.
“We’ve had things that have come along and helped the average cyclist to avoid cyclists, primarily Strava and the Heatmap on Strava. If you haven’t checked it out, you should. Because you see the routes that other cyclists are using, and they are using the routes that they feel safe on.”
Heatmap shows the routes cyclists in your area are using most often. More on the feature here. It’s a paid feature, but if you ride it’s worth the $7 a month to, you know, not get mowed down by your neighbor in the lifted, supercharged Ford Raptor.
Do the obvious
Lance didn’t mention these points because they go without saying, but do the following:
Wear a helmet. See the stats above.
Stand out. Use lighting and reflectors, and consider wearing visible colors. Obstacles that are easier to see are less likely to get hit. How’s that for common sense?
Best option to not get hit by a car: Ride where cars can’t go
“You know the best solution to all of this? It’s to ride the mountain bike. In the summertime in Colorado, if I’m riding a bicycle, I bet 95 percent of it is on a mountain bike,” Lance said.
Sure, trails are more unpredictable, and there are likely higher risks of crashes.
But the crashes are less likely to kill you—and you can modify your risk by choosing the right trail and riding within your comfort zone, whereas you can’t control a texting driver.
For the future: Wait for self-driving cars
Lance mentioned he spoke with Malcolm Gladwell for an episode of Gladwell’s podcast, Revisionist History.
The episode covers the future of self-driving cars. To make the point about how erratic, inattentive, and crazy drivers are, Gladwell interviewed Lance and other professional cyclists.
They all said the same thing: Drivers are … yes … erratic, inattentive, and crazy.
Self-driving cars will likely make road cycling far safer.
Have fun, don’t die, ride safe.
-Michael
Here’s how this works: Runners can only put in so many miles due to the physical impacts of running. It’s a lot of pounding. Cyclists can spend much more time on the bike because it’s less impactful, developing their cardiovascular system to a greater degree.
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