It's not just that great chattery line from the George Thorogood song anymore. It's also a Big Time Caveat for cyclists, especially those of the road variety. And, EVEN MORE ESPECIALLY, FOR YOU RACE TEAMERS. Finally, a fit bit aimed mainly, though not exclusively, at YOU. Yep, you guys may have even worse bones than the club's civilian cyclists.
Whatever. What follows applies to all of us.
You've all heard it before, how you're old-and-gettin'-older bones CRAVE impact exercise such as running, trail hiking, "Wheeeeeee-OOOOOOO!" aerobics classes; how they GOTTA HAVE this gentle jarring to stay solid and strong. And how, as a bone-builder, cycling is an el floppo major.
Research appearing just last month in the New York Times provides the latest take on just how cycling (that is ROAD cycling) if left unchecked is going to turn your skeletal structure into a pliant pretzel.
Got your attention now? Read on.
if the only exercise you do is road cycling, you might well be putting yourself at risk of osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis, or porous bone, is a disease characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue over time, leading to fragility and an increased risk of fractures of the hip, spine and wrist. 
Cyclists are also at serious risk of osteopenia, or sub-normal bone density. A one percent decrease in density increases fracture risk by up to five percent. Read that one more time.
A study published in the journal Metabolism in 2007 compared road cyclists and runners between the ages of 20 and 59. It found that a whopping 63 percent of the cyclists had osteopenia of the spine or hip, compared with a measley 19 percent of the runners.
The latest study, which appeared this year in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, compared the lower spine bone densities of a group of competitive male cyclists against a control group of moderately active men who did other sports. The cyclists had considerably lower spinal bone densities, DESPITE HAVING A GREATER CALCIUM INTAKE (my caps).
Yikes!!!!!
Apparently, it’s the lack of impact in our sport that can lead to low bone density, especially in the lower back, which remains immobile and shock-free when riding on smooth roads (which, I suppose, could be offset by a once a month Sat ride of 2 hours of repeats back and forth on Meek Rd.). Ironically, cycling’s lack of impact is precisely what makes the sport so practicable for older riders. Moi, for example.
And the bone thing is even WORSE riders into hard training and racing (Attencione', DS Lambert), since they might not be eating enough and are burning up essential bone-building nutrients such as vitamin D and calcium with their hardcore training.
In 2006, Aaron Smathers, then 29, was a graduate student in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at the University of Oklahoma, gathering data for a study of brittle bones in cyclists. One of his subjects was himself, since he’s been a bike racer for years. A recent scan had revealed that his bones were less dense than usual for a man his age. Not long after those results came in, he crashed during a race, snapping his collarbone. Six weeks later, in his first post-injury race, he was engulfed by a multi-rider pile-up, crashed again, and re-broke his col larbone. Worse, he fractured his hip so badly that the ball of the ball-and-socket joint broke off. “Later I thought, well, this reinforces my study,” he says.
The study Smathers was involved in was exclusively of bike racers, most in their late 20s and early 30s, was compared to that of age-matched controls, men who were active but not competitive athletes. Bone scans showed that almost all of the boy racers had significantly less bone density in the spine than the control group. Some of the racers, young men in their 20s, had osteopenia in their spines, a medical condition only one step below full-blown osteoporosis. “To find guys in their twenties with osteopenia was surprising and pretty disturbing,” Smathers says.
Another recent study, this one published last year, had similar results. It followed competitive cyclists over the course of a race season in Colorado. The riders, aged 27 to 44, began with slightly below-average bone density. By the conclusion of the race season, they had lost a significant portion of their total, already-low bone mass in their hips, though not in their spines. At a three-month follow-up exam, however, they showed a small amount of bone recovery in the hips.
Sweat can also play a role. A rider can lose hundreds of milligrams of calcium an hour through sweat. Although the riders in both Smathers’ and the Colorado study were ingesting more than the recommended daily allowance of calcium for their age, they may still have had a deficit of the mineral, which is essential to bone-building. Some researchers theorize that calcium must be taken during exercise to be most effective. A 2004 laboratory study of cyclists who were given either tap water or calcium-enriched water during a 50-minute, stationary-bicycle ride found that the riders drinking the tap water had much higher levels of blood chemicals related to bone loss than did the riders swigging the calcium. Researchers suspect that drinking calcium-enriched waters or sports drinks during long, hot bike rides may help to stave off some bone loss.
But there is some encouraging news for the 15s, 17s, and most of the 19s.
Most recreational cyclists probably don’t need to worry too much about their bones. “The studies to date have looked primarily at racers,” Smathers says. “That’s a very specialized demographic. These guys train for hours at a very high intensity. They sweat a lot. They never go for runs. They don’t usually do much weight-lifting,” to avoid adding bulk. “They’re strange.” He knows. “For competitive riders, I’d recommend spending some time weight-training.” If you do race or train hard and often on a bike, consider a bone scan, he says. “It’s good to know your status.” For himself, his racing career ended with hip surgery and four metal pins in the joint after his second severe crash. “I do miss racing,” he says. On the plus side, his latest bone scan, completed just weeks ago, shows that his bone density, while still low, is increasing.
Anything else you can do?
Well, one answer lies in a previous study published in a 2002 issue of Bone magazine (no, Ty. It's not porn), which found that mountain bikers had considerably higher bone density than the sample road cyclists. And it has nothing to do with their body piercings or tatts. Rather, it seems that bumpy trails will give your skeleton all the impact it needs to stimulate bone growth.
But you're not gonna buy a GT or Gary Fisher full-suspension and head up to Leif Erickson. We know that.
It seems that cross-training (and, yes, brothers and sisters, cyclocross counts here) is the key to a healthy bone mass, with running and ball sports being ideal. 
“When it comes to bone health,” says Dr Claire Bowring of the National Osteoporosis Society, “cyclists need to add some weight-bearing exercise to their training.”
Such as?
“Running, dancing or any exercise where you’re supporting the weight of your body helps build strong bones.”
Dancing? DANCING?
What about something else, doc? ANYTHING. Like, say . . . diet?
Maybe some Bone Meals?
Consume less:
* Salt
* Sugar: including refined or processed foods, which increase calcium excretion from the body and stimulate the adrenal glands
* Red meat: too much protein won’t help build bone density
* Carbonated soft drinks: phosphoric acid upsets the body’s calcium/phosphorous ratio, which stimulates release of the parathyroid hormone and reduces calcium uptake
* Alcohol
* Caffeine: it reduces mineral absorption and stimulates adrenal glands
Eat more:
* Dark green vegetables, berries and cherries, soy foods, sesame seeds, flaxseed, beans and pulses, canned oily fish and nuts – all of which are rich in nutrients that will support healthy bone growth.
* For those particularly at risk or already suffering, nutritional supplements are a good idea and there are plenty of combined bone health formulas available. But make sure they contain a full spectrum of the following nutrients: calcium, magnesium, zinc, boron, silicon, vitamin D, vitamin K, B6, folic acid, B12 and vitamin C.
Now, get out there and dance.