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Injury Recovery: Getting back on the bike after a collarbone break

I once had a colleague who did triathlons joke that there were two types of cyclists – those who had broken a collarbone, and those who hadn’t…yet.


I’ve been in my fair share of bike crashes, mostly operator error, mostly harmless. But summer of 2020 I crashed just wrong, flipped over the handlebars on the shoulder of a road and knew immediately that I’d broken my left collarbone. I was visiting my parents out of state for my mom’s birthday, so she drove out to pick me up off the side of the road (sorry Mom!).


While the break itself didn’t hurt that much, I can’t say the same for the recovery. I was very lucky to find a good surgeon quickly, but I had a bit of a rough go with some side effects of the nerve block wearing off and the recovery in general. I had a bunch of friends from work sharing stories about lasting impacts of breaking a collarbone, most who insisted their shoulders were never the same, still clicked or got ‘stuck’, and one former collegiate wrestler who swore he always knew when there would be a storm because he could feel it in his shoulder. Obviously – I didn’t find any of this promising.

Before Surgery

I was given the green light to get out of the sling and do mobility exercises at three weeks post-surgery, which I did religiously. I drove back to Syracuse I contacted Andrew Shoen, the personal trainer I work with, and let him know I wanted to do everything I could to build my shoulder back up to being strong, stable and hopefully not clicking and predicting the weather. He added a lot of mobility and stability exercises to my routine, starting with just 5lbs about a month and a half post-op and focusing on getting the whole mobility of the joint and gradually building strength. Some areas that took extra work were holding weight above me without the whole shoulder shaking and smoothing out the range-of-motion so my shoulder didn’t get ‘stuck’ or click as I went about my day. Working with someone who would listen and knew my goals was incredibly helpful in adapting a program to help my recovery, getting my shoulder not just pain free but stable again so I could trust it when riding my bike. And of course – there was always the indoor trainer to ride. I also took my road bike into the shop and asked the team at Syracuse Bicycle to give it a once over so I could be sure I hadn’t damaged the frame or any components.

Post Surgery

I was back on the bike outside in mid-November, a short ride that made the shoulder very sore. I kept up the training and stretching through the winter, was able to cross country ski a few times and did my first off-road event post-surgery in May of 2021 at the Island 25 in Auburn NY with some teammates. I still experienced some moderate discomfort and the left shoulder fatigued way faster than my right, but it was progress! By the end of the summer, I was able to get back on the mountain bike as well. I raced cyclocross a few times that fall and I’ve been able to ski cross country without pain this winter. Knowing I could trust the strength and stability I had built back was a huge factor for me in overcoming the fear of crashing again and reinjuring the shoulder, which did make me more cautious on the bike to start.

I think the biggest lesson through this process is a common one – have your support team and trust the process. I had a great surgeon, found a huge help in my trainer Andrew, and great teammates to ride with once I got back on the bike who helped me overcome some of my fear about crashing again. I asked my surgeon and trainer a lot of questions and listened to their advice, especially careful to follow my surgeon’s direction on when I could add activity back in. But once I had the ‘ok’ I dove in to building that strength and stability back up. I’m not a particularly patient person so that process was quite frustrating. I didn’t just want the shoulder to be pain free day-to-day, I wanted it to be strong: to hold up for long hours in the saddle and some regular abuse from adventure riding. It took a long time to build that back. But now, I’m really pleased that my shoulder is strong and healthy. Looking forward to the summer with plenty of riding with the rest of the team in my future!



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