On Sunday, May 24th, Elynor Bäckstedt, Trek-Segafredo's youngest rider in the 2020 roster, crashed and sustained a spiral fracture of the right tibia.
Elynor Bäckstedt was mountain biking with her family in some local forests close to their family home in South Wales when she suffered the accident. She was descending a steep off-road section at around 10kph when her front wheel lost traction and slipped away, causing her to fall.
“We had been for an MTB ride in one of our local forests and were on our way back,” explained her father, Magnus Bäckstedt. “Coming down a relatively steep off-road descent, her front wheel slipped and washed away, and she didn’t manage to put her foot down in time to catch herself so ended up with it underneath herself and the bike.
“She was doing about 10kph at the time and I was right behind her. It looked like one of those little tumbles that you would stand up and laugh about because it was so slow, but she squealed and I knew something was wrong straight away!”
After being transported to the nearby Royal Glamorgan Hospital, X-rays confirmed that she had a spiral fracture of the tibia, her only serious injury. She was kept overnight for monitoring and discharged early afternoon, on May 25th.
I’m currently still in a lot of pain and discomfort, however, I’m super happy to be back home with my family and my boyfriend. I’ll keep you all updated with any progress. Thank you to everyone for all your get well soon messages!
Elynor will see a specialist later in the week to assess whether the alignment of the bone is correct and determine whether surgery is necessary. We will post any updates here.
UPDATES
May 30th, 2020 – Trek-Segafredo’s head physician Dr. Gaetano Daniele has given this update on Eynor’s injury with the good news that surgery can be avoided:
“We are maintaining a conservative approach in Elynor’s treatment to avoid unnecessary surgeries. This choice was influenced by the nature of the fracture, which is in the middle of the tibia. The young age of Elynor is improving the recovery outlook, and the possible side effects of surgery, which would require a metal nail from the knee to the ankle. This would need to be removed after 3 months, meaning two surgeries under anesthesia and the possibility to damage the patellar tendon to create space for the nail.
“Elynor’s current plaster cast is okay. She will undergo new X-rays every week for the next 3-4 weeks to follow the process and ensure that nothing changes.
“It is too early right now to indicate a date of a possible resumption of training, but we expect at least two months to complete the healing process.”
