Gee Atherton’s rehab following the Knife Edge crash.
Working with professional downhill mountain bike racers like Gee Atherton is a mixture of improving their strength and fitness for competition, and rehabilitating them from injuries. I've dealt with a lot of injured riders in my career but none have come close to what Gee did during the filming of a RedBull project near his home in mid-Wales.
Gee Atherton's crash came when he was riding big mountain terrain labelled the ‘Knife Edge’, disaster struck and he was thrown from his bike, literally down cliff face, in a well-documented and graphic crash.
" I didn’t know if this would be the end of his riding career "
Compound fractures to his leg and arm, a broken eye socket and nose, and 5 broken ribs leading to a collapsed lung, Gee Atherton's crash was more than most riders have in a lifetime
I spoke to Gee in the very early stages and my focus was to look at the here and now, the practicalities of what he could do to gradually recover his health and mobility. I didn’t know whether this would be the end of his riding career. Being able to walk again properly, and use the injured arm to its fullest were the first key steps, the bike came a distant second.
I spoke to Gee in the very early stages and my focus was to look at the here and now, the practicalities of what he could do to gradually recover his health and mobility. I didn’t know whether this would be the end of his riding career. Being able to walk again properly, and use the injured arm to its fullest were the first key steps, the bike came a distant second.
" The injury essentially forced the thigh bone through all the muscle and out of the skin "
Following extensive physiotherapy we began to move into the initial strength building phase. The upper body was healing well and he could train pain free which was very good. However, as we strengthened the leg, there was clearly a problem and something wasn’t right – so Gee had further scans and investigative surgery to see what was happening. The surgeon found some issues with the original rod and screws and these had to be replaced. This meant starting over with his leg rehab. At least we knew everything was now fixed properly and we could scale up training to start to try and get his strength back.
The injury essentially forced the thigh bone through all the muscle and out of the skin – so there was a lot of muscle damage, and the scars highlighted the damage and also the challenge to return to a full 50:50 balance in strength. Although this is clearly the focus for successful rehab, after such a long time away from riding Gee was desperate to get back on a bike, and training had to account for this.
It is easy to only see it from one point of view, but motivation for the athlete is vital, and being able to ride pain free was a huge drive for Gee and an exciting prospect. With riding events on the horizon we shifted training to account for this – developing power, tolerating landings, and allowing his to get back to riding again.
Most normal people would spend a long time building back into their riding gradually, but obviously with Gee Atherton this wasn’t going to happen – Redbull Hardline was his first event back!