Robbed of racing for months this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Imogen Cotter still managed to take a lot from the 2020 campaign with big achievements in the bank and crucial lessons learned.
As a late-comer to cycling, the lost
months this year represent a much bigger chunk of her development being taken
away when compared to what the other more experienced riders around her in the
European peloton have lost to the pandemic.
However, having won a race ahead of
top pros and then been schooled in the basics by the same riders when she
stepped up to the big stage in recent months, it was a big year for the Irish
woman.
It was an unusual season in which her progress to date and potential for the future were both confirmed but a year in which she also came face to face with those aspects of her game she needs to improve.
Advertisement
Cotter, aged 27 years and based in
Belgium in recent years, is a former cross-country runner who rode her first
bike race, Rás na mBan, in September, 2017.
At the start of the following year she was living in London, training solely indoors on a Watt bike, before deciding to give cycling a go and moving to Mallorca to train, towards making the Irish track team.
When hopes of making the team for the Europeans did not come to pass she decided to put her training, and improved skills, to good use by traveling to Belgium to race there.
That 2018 season also saw her take on Rás na mBan again; finishing 11 minutes off the winner rather than 3½ hours, as was the case in 2017.
However, it wasn’t until she came back to Ireland again for the National Road Championships in Derry in 2019 that the domestic scene began to notice Cotter. She rode to silver; beaten in a two-up sprint by track and road international Alice Sharpe.
After that breakthrough ride she was selected to be part
of the Irish team for Kreiz Breizh stage race in France in August, 2019, but a
minor crash sidelined her before that race began.
This year she planned a full season with Belgian elite team KeukensRedant and while Covid-19 messed up those plans, she still took a win in Zolder against many pros.
She rode strongly enough to through the season to catch the eye of UCI team Ciclotel, which offered her a stagiaire, meaning she rode the Tour of Flanders and AG Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne. But for next year she is staying with KeukensRedant.
“After riding at Ciclotel for the
Tour of Flanders and Brugge-De Panne, the team announced that they were
folding,” Cotter told stickybottle of the season end just weeks ago.
“KeukensRedant had agreed to release me from my contract for those races
and said they would take me back if it didn’t work out so I was really happy to
be able to return to them.”
Related News
She added that before the Covid-19 pandemic hit her plan was to seek to progress this year and secure a place at a UCI team for next year, but her perspective has now changed.
“I always had it in my head that I
wanted to go to a UCI team for 2021,” she said. “I don’t know why, because
KeukensRedant is so professional and well-run. I also get the opportunity to do
some big races there and learn a lot.”
She added the team was full of strong riders with years of experience
she could learn from and a team of staff always willing to support her and give
her any practical help she needed, including on race days.
“I think a lot of people get caught up on the title of ‘UCI team’, and I
have definitely been guilty of that in the past,” she said.
“I’m lucky to have my boyfriend, who is Belgian and knows a lot of the
teams around here – he really helped me to see that it is just that, a title. And
the club team that I am with now is a lot more professional than some UCI
teams.
“I will still get to do high level races. Maybe not World Tour, but I’m
not ready for that. I need to remind myself sometimes that 2019 was my first
road season. Now 2020 was a bit of a ‘stolen season’.
“I haven’t been doing this long so I don’t need to be in competition with other people to get to a higher level faster – I can only do my best and just keep training hard.”
Currently just a week back training following a post-season break she said he was getting back “into the groove of things” and focusing on also doing some off-road rider as she “missed getting mucky” since giving by cross county running.
She said while she had yet to commit her goals to paper for next year,
she already had a firm idea of the kind of progress she needed to make.
“A huge lesson I learnt from doing those World Tour races was how
important positioning is,” she said of the late season events with Ciclotel.
“My power wasn’t worse than a lot of the other ladies who were racing,
but they were just in the right place at the right time. It is so important.
“So I think a massive goal of mine next year will be more to concentrate
on the positioning in the race and the skill I use, rather than the end result.
“I’m also placing more importance on stability and strength over the
winter, something I haven’t done since I was riding on the track three years
ago, so I hope that will make a change.
“Overall, I’m just trying to enjoy it all. I’m happy to be with a
supportive team and looking forward to some more races in 2021.”
Topics
