Does all travel insurance, that includes cancellation, include extreme sports pre departure?

e.g. if I were to book a tame, sensible but expensive holiday
then fall off my bike before leaving
is the cancellation covered?

Obviously a proper mtb holiday would need proper mtb insurance- but this isn’t that.

Not really sure what you mean, but if you break an arm or something before going on holiday then you will generally still be able to go even if you can’t do the things you wanted to. Therefore, claim refused. This also applies to a lot of activity holidays as you can still technically have a holiday even if it’s goin to be a shit one stuck in resort or whatever

How you break yourself isn’t really going to come into it as the activities cover comes in when away

Interesting question. Looking at the terms of an ordinary holiday policy I had a couple of years ago, the insured person has to give a warranty that that they have told the insurers about any pre-existing medical conditions, investigations, etc. That only covers medical risk. There is also a general warranty, that you should tell them about any non-medical reason why the trip could be cancelled. So if you were a professional stunt rider, or a jump jockey, or did other stuff that typically did get you injured to the extent that there’s a significant risk of cancellation, you’d have to tell them. But if you do active sports, but don’t have a record of accidents, my take is you don’t have to tell them.

However, the safest thing to do is tell them what you do; if they say they’re not bothered, fine. If they put up the premium, pay it or try another company. Don’t chance it, or you may as well just take the risk of not having insurance.

I can’t remember who it was with (Post Office or Easyjet or similar, it wasn’t anyone unusual) but I had travel insurance that covered me for an inability to whatever it was I was going on holiday to do, but it had to be specific, (i.e. a skiing holiday, cycling holiday etc, not just “my photos of Thailand won’t look as good with a broken arm”). So I was covered if I injured myself the week before a cycling holiday., I remember because it specifically said this didn’t apply to the remaining holiday if I injured myself on holiday.