NBC News' Stephanie Gosk Urges Bike Safety After Her 'Gruesome' Crash: 'I'm Extraordinarily Lucky'

Stephanie Gosk Stephanie Gosk

NBC News' Stephanie Gosk is bruised and stitched up after a "gruesome" bike crash, but healing, thanks in part to her helmet.

The correspondent is urging people to take bike safety seriously after she crashed to the ground during a group bike ride last month. In an essay for Today.com, Gosk, 50, explained that road biking became her pandemic hobby, and once the weather warmed up this spring, she quickly signed up for a 65-mile ride.

"Overly eager that morning, I took off with the lead group. I had no business riding with them. By the time we hit eight miles, I was getting dropped. It was in that moment, tearing down a hill, looking at the riders up ahead and not paying attention to the road, that I hit it — a pothole grabbed the front wheel and threw the bike, with me on it, down hard," she wrote. "I slid along the pavement. My head hit and my face dragged."

Gosk was biking through suburban New Jersey when she crashed, and people in the neighborhood immediately called 911.

"The scene was grim. My face was a mess and so were my hands. My helmet was cracked clear through in two different places," she said.

Stephanie Gosk Stephanie Gosk's helmet

At the hospital, Gosk needed stitches over her eye and surgery on her right thumb.

"But I didn't lose consciousness, and I didn't have a concussion, thanks to my helmet," she said.

Stephanie Gosk Stephanie Gosk at the hospital

As Gosk picked her bike up from the police station recently, a police officer told her that at "the speed you were going, and the tumble — it's a good thing for the helmet and it's a good thing you had some luck on your side."

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Now, Gosk wants people to understand just how important a helmet is to staying safe while biking. In a feature on Wednesday's episode of Today, she recommended that people look at the helmet ratings from Virginia Tech — researchers at the school crash-test helmets to check their safety — before they buy, and to make sure to get a new helmet after five years, even if they haven't been in an accident.

"The material degrades over time," she explained.

Gosk said that she was "extraordinarily lucky" that she wasn't hurt more — and that she plans to be back in the saddle as soon as her thumb heals up.

Stephanie Gosk Stephanie Gosk with her daughters

"I should probably be scared, [her daughter] Harper said to me, 'Maybe you should do Peloton, Mommy,' " Gosk told the Today hosts, laughing. "She's got more wisdom than her years. But I will be back, I love it."