Are Cyclists Safe From The ‘Rona?
Because cycling is an outdoor sport, and its participants likely healthier than the general population, are we less vulnerable to COVID?
My local cycling community responded very quickly to the Pandemic. Group rides were canceled as soon as the CDC and state authorities put in lockdown in March of 2020. And when groups of no more than ten were allowed, we splintered into small group rides. If more than ten showed up at the parking lot/starting point, that group was split as well.
A month or two later, the scientists in our sport started to speak out about what they knew and believed were the Coronavirus risks to cyclists. The issue was explored from a number of areas.
Are cyclists safe from Coronavirus because ours is an outdoor sport? Ours was an outdoor sport. Even though you sweat and breathe in the proximity of others, the air is moving, were droplets (the primary early concern about how the virus spread was through respiratory droplets) less likely to land and stick?
While there are still many unknowns about coronavirus spread, experts consider risk to be lower in outdoor settings where safe social-distancing practices are in place. — Bicycling.com, July, 2020.
Are cyclists fitter than average and therefore less likely to experience the more devastating symptoms? We train, we generally weigh less than the averages in our populations. We have lower rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. Are we less likely to suffer the worst of COVID’s symptoms just because we are active?
Rebecca Robinson is a sports and exercise medicine consultant at the English Institute of Sport, and works with Olympic and Paralympic athletes. She is clear that the benefits of being on our bikes outweigh the risks. “We know that exercise boosts the immune system, as well as being really important for our health.” — Cycling Weekly, November, 2020.
Is it socially responsible to ride in groups during a pandemic? The last thing anyone wants is to pass Coronavirus on to another person, especially our vulnerable elderly or people with compromised immune systems and underlying exacerbating medical problems. Were cyclists being selfish by riding in groups? Risking spread by gathering and riding?
Teams, Clubs and other groups considering group rides should know and abide by all local requirements and guidelines for group activities.”— USA Cycling’s Team and Club Guidelines for Riding During The Pandemic
Where The Pro’s Go, Amateurs Follow
With the general consensus that cycling was a safer-than-most activity in a pandemic world, professional cycling took a swing a bringing the sport back. They discouraged or removing roadside spectators, maintained tested, Coronavirus-free bubbles around the teams, and surrounding the athletes in protected environments. And when pros have tested positive, even suffered through COVID, their documented recoveries seem swift and safe, as if cycling is some kind of protection against the virus.
When their experiments worked, things eased up for amateurs as well. We went back to full-strength group rides. Even local races began to come back (albeit mostly mountain-bike and time trial events where riders would be spread out and with parking lot restrictions and rules on mask-wearing and crowd-gathering). Also, since the evidence came out that healthy outdoor exercise was a safe alternative to the unavailable gyms and indoor group-training classes, the cycling industry saw an incredible boom.
I live in Arizona, a center-right conservative state, and we’ve just passed through a particularly divisive period in politics. My state has, unfortunately, been the epicenter of many of the brasher, bullying, and caustic expressions of the Trumpist agenda. My local group has not been immune to the impact of COVID-denial, vaccine skepticism, and outright hostility to opposing thought. It’s been a time to bite my tongue, keep my head down, and unfortunately has caused me to step back from several decades-long friendships built on the foundation of cycling.
Yes to its credit, as a group, my cycling community has been a cooperative home for all riders. We reached a sort of self-managing equilibrium. When coming together in larger group rides, with established leadership, even our most critical and vocal hard-right members have found a way to remain part of the group.
Cycling is the glue that has held the community together. It’s worth fighting to bring it back to normal. This means that mass vaccination really the only path to a full return to cycling as I know it (the social, communal, competitive lifestyle of the amateur enthusiast).
Getting The Shot That Will Save Lives
What I’m asking you, my fellow cyclist, is that even though you feel invulnerable to COVID because you’re fit and your sport is outdoors and your heroes are racing on television with the appearance that there is no pandemic, please get your vaccination anyway. It is truly a simple process. If enough people join in, we can reach herd immunity, and then cycling, as will the rest of society, can truly go back to normal.
I have been around enough people who have had the vaccination (cycling friends, older family members, and acquaintances) to understand that there can be side effects. Most people report a slight fever, headache, or pain and soreness at the injection site for a day or more after the shot. That led me to carry some underlying anxiety into the appointment, but the science is there, and the need is greater than for that of my own life, so I put my fear aside and went ahead.
Shots are now available to all adults over the age of 18 in my state, so I had my first dose last week (Moderna vaccine). I scheduled through my primary care doctor’s office, which referred me to a local pediatric clinic that was acting as a vaccination hub.
There was no lingering. He didn’t stick the needle in and then take two or three seconds to depress the plunger. It was a punch of a shot and the job was done.
For my appointment, I was instructed to park in a designated space outside the clinic. An attendant came over to take my information and verify my appointment. A few minutes later, the technician came over to jab my arm. He had a small tray with the syringe and other supplies in it. He asked if it was okay to open my door. He asked me to hold my t-shirt back on my left arm. He swabbed the fat part of my shoulder just above where my biceps and triceps meet. I turned my head away. And then it was jab-and-done. There was no lingering. He didn’t stick the needle in and then take two or three seconds to depress the plunger. It was a punch of a shot and the job was done.
I looked down at my arm and there was a trickle of blood about an inch long. He wiped it, put a bandage over it, and told me to wait in the parking lot for 15 minutes or so. I assumed to make sure I had no anaphylactic or cream reaction.
The next day, the muscle in my shoulder where he injected was sore, but I drank lots of water, took it easy, and I felt fine. I get my second shot in two weeks.
So how about it, fellow cyclist? Have you been vaccinated? Will you?
