The purpose of this master's thesis, was to study the characteristics of mountain bikers and their injuries on authorised and unauthorised trails. 380 mountain bikers participated in the study; 80,00 % (304) were male and 20,00 % (76) were female. On average, the subjects were 32,69 ± 10,83 years old, weighed 77,02 ± 13,89 kg and were 177,98 ± 8,35 cm tall; on average, they have been mountain biking for 9,7 ± 7,69 years. 66,84 % of the subjects spent most of their time cycling on unauthorised or illegal mountain biking trails and only 33,16 % of all the subjects cycled on authorised or legal trails. To study injuries in mountain biking, we used a questionnaire that was adapted according to the recommendations for epidemiological studies in sports science. The data were analysed using IMB SPSS program. We calculated frequencies and relative frequencies for descriptive data, and for numerical data, we calculated mean values (mean, median) and scattered value (standard deviation, standard error of the mean). We found out, that 76,64 % of all men and 55,26 % of all women were injured. According on the anatomical area of the injuries, 49,48 % of them were the upper extremities injuries, of which 22,14 % were shoulder injuries. We also found, that 33,62 % of all the injuries were the lower extremities injuries, of which 33,15 % were knee injuries. 94, 92 % of all injuries were acute and 48,60 % of these were reflected as a blow, hematoma or abrasion and were the result of a fall. The findings show, that 60,06 % of the injuries occurred on authorised trails and 39,94 % on unauthorised trails, which does not mean that unauthorised trails are safer than authorised. Survey shows, that the most common causes of injuries are mainly lack of concentration and carelessness and wrong decisions or actions in the current circumstances, as well as unexpected conditions on the road and lack of knowledge of the terrain. These are all reasons that are not so directly dependent on authorised or unauthorised mountain bike trails. Based on the findings, however, we recommend that mountain bikers use protective equipment more and more often (injuries are minor), learn to ride a mountain bike at professional seminars, carry out more demanding mountain bike tours under professional guidance, (learning to react correctly in different circumstances and in unexpected situations, practical demonstrations of riding), they cycle on mountain bike trails or in bike parks and choose mainly trails that suit their knowledge, fitness and experience.
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