Mark Cavendish to take indefinite break from cycling after virus diagnosis

The only sport I follow at all is tennis. Whenever I read of a player struggling to get back into playing after a virus, I worry that they will push themselves too far too fast and end up with ME. There was one a few years ago, Robin Soderling, who had to give up playing after glandular fever and trying too hard to get back to playing too soon.
 
I have waffled on about this before, but wonder if we have lost out with the dropping of the concept of convalesance.

Looking back twenty five years ago to the onset on my own ME following glandular fever, it was characterised by returning to work too soon, being off work for a couple of weeks, back to work for a couple of weeks, off again etc, until I was too unwell to continue working. I often wonder if I had taken several months to fully recover would this have prevented a life long disabling condition?

Best wishes to Mark Cavendish.
 
This is very unfortunate, but it seems strange to say that he was training and racing unknowing of his glandular fever. This may be the reporting rather than the team release. I thought all sorts of reservations were expressed when he first suffered from glandular fever, but it was assumed that he would have access to the best medical advice.

I think he is more likely to be assessed as having a Type A personality after insisting on finishing the stage of the tour de France, making the organisers throw him off the tour for failing to meet the time limit, rather than give up and climb in the team car.

So like the story of many, though at a somewhat different level of achievement. One hopes for the best.
 
Peter Trewhitt said:
I have waffled on about this before, but wonder if we have lost out with the dropping of the concept of convalesance.
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I agree this is a major change to the way illness is treated. With schools and workplaces obsessed with attendance and also more couples both going out to work, so kids are sent back to school far too early after infections, things have certainly changed.

I've told the story before on here of my Dad having a 'recurring virus' diagnosis, and every time it recurred he was off work until he felt better, several times for a period of months and told to rest and not do any mental or physical work. He was very well in between and held down a demanding and responsible job.
 
The diagnosis seems very fishy to me. Married 33-year-old gets EBV Mononucleosis; doesn't really notice and continues to ride grueling cycling road races?

I look forward to watching the Tour de France every summer. Hope to see the Manx Missile launching at 100% again.
 
Peter Trewhitt said:
I have waffled on about this before, but wonder if we have lost out with the dropping of the concept of convalesance.

Looking back twenty five years ago to the onset on my own ME following glandular fever, it was characterised by returning to work too soon, being off work for a couple of weeks, back to work for a couple of weeks, off again etc, until I was too unwell to continue working. I often wonder if I had taken several months to fully recover would this have prevented a life long disabling condition?

Best wishes to Mark Cavendish.
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When I had glandular fever in the early 70s in my late teens, not as bad as it could have been so I was told, I was kept in bed for 2 weeks, given 3 weeks sick leave, and light duties for some time after that. I do not have ME by the way, and maybe that is why.
 
Sad news about Mark Cavendish. I am not surprised he didn't initially know he was sick. Athletes are trained to keep going through pain and exhaustion...and I think many on here will have kept themselves going long after they should have taken time out initially. I know I did, and that is probably why I am so sick.

I don't think it has that much to do with Type A personality. Most of us have bills to pay, and other pressures, and as we all know there is a big stigma surrounding admitting that you are unable to work.
 
hellytheelephant said:
I don't think it has that much to do with Type A personality. Most of us have bills to pay, and other pressures, and as we all know there is a big stigma surrounding admitting that you are unable to work.
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I think we just didn't really know it would hurt us long term. If you do too much you get tired, then you rest or take it easy and you're fine. Obviously this doesn't always work out after all.
 
andypants said:
I think we just didn't really know it would hurt us long term. If you do too much you get tired, then you rest or take it easy and you're fine. Obviously this doesn't always work out after all.
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I think also a big confusion factor is that in many cases, for normally healthy poeople, "pushing through" all sorts of bugs does in fact work. I imagine most people here successfully employed that strategy through their lives, until the time where for some reason it went horribly wrong. But as yet there is no way to know when it will go wrong or not. The popular BPS-promoted myth, of course, is that PwME "just have to push themselves through it"; it's such an ingrained part of most people's just-get-on-with-it culture. I suspect most PwME had that mindset prior to their ME.
 
Barry said:
I think also a big confusion factor is that in many cases, for normally healthy poeople, "pushing through" all sorts of bugs does in fact work. I imagine most people here successfully employed that strategy through their lives, until the time where for some reason it went horribly wrong. But as yet there is no way to know when it will go wrong or not. The popular BPS-promoted myth, of course, is that PwME "just have to push themselves through it"; it's such an ingrained part of most people's just-get-on-with-it culture. I suspect most PwME had that mindset prior to their ME.
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Yes. This was my point, happily someone had the energy to actually write it out! :)
 
Viral illness is very common in cyclists. Epstein Barr is notorious to take quite a few months to recover from. Cyclists train in harsh conditions day in and day out, they can be on the road for 6 hours every day. One of the worst thing athletes of that caliber can do is to push themselves and return to training too early, as we all know from our own experience.

It would be very interesting to study the blood (metabolomics? Gene expression?) of these athletes during their viral illness and then when they recover. Most of them do recover.

In Cavendish’s case, he is getting a bit older for a cyclist, he may decide after a few months to retire from competition. Getting back into shape, especially for a sprinter, takes time.
 
This is one of many examples of what many have experienced, and what I would characterize as the scary part of EBV, - meaning that many top athletes and other people can push way to long not knowing of the virus. As I understand it, EBV may hit like a hammer or be “quiet” and something in between. The first is to prefer. A lot of long-term patients have experienced the “quiet” pushing trough way to long, doing a lot of damage.

I’m quite sure that the great difference between top athletes and “normal people”, is that athletes as a main rule, will be saved in time, have a good chance of knowing the unknown before it is to late. The important point here is the easy good access to a medical team. It is my non-statistical feeling that athletes as Cavendish, at risk of developing more severe disease, seems to get away with it, because they contrary to normal people don’t push trough to long, meaning they have a significant better chance of taking appropriate measures in time.
 
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