Irish professional cyclist Imogen Cotter is back in the peloton on the European scene some seven months after she was hit by a driver in a crash she said she was lucky to survive.
Cotter lined out in action yesterday for her team Plantur-Pura, in what was her debut ride for the squad and her first race since she won the elite women's road race at the National Road Championships in Co Wicklow in October last year.
Her comeback race was in Berlare, Belgium, where she rode a pro kermesse. Cotter said she started with the intention of riding around for about 75 minutes, primarily to test how her knee and wrist injury felt when placed under racing stress.
"My own personal goal was to enjoy it, to remember why I worked so hard and suffered through all the hours of physio pain and the monotonous exercises and stretches day in, day out," she said, adding she also wanted to "set a new bar" for her comeback.
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"And I did really enjoy it," she added. "I might have been sitting at the back of the peloton for most of it, but gotta start somewhere. I’m looking forward to some hillier races soon and getting my skills back bit by bit, but today feels like a big win."
The 2021 Irish champion was hit head-on by a driver overtaking a cyclist on the opposite side of the road while she was out training having just relocated to Girona back in January.
Cotter had plates inserted on her radius and ulna bones, the outer and inner bones on the forearm. Her patella was also broken in the crash and she had metal screws inserted into the patella to keep sections of it together.
The Co Clare woman also had about 40 metal staples inserted into her knee to help the wound heal. She added scans showed there was “no cartilage left in my right knee”. Since then she has faced a very long recovery and while the healing process set in quickly, she has faced a significant rehab regime for her knee and wrist.
