Imogen Cotter back on home trainer despite significant injuries | Video | Sticky Bottle

*Imogen Cotter in her Plantur Pura Irish champion's kit getting back in the saddle, albeit in a limited manner, in her apartment in Girona (Photo: Alina Jäger)*

Imogen Cotter has begun some gentle work-outs on the home trainer and has ramped up her rehab after she had her casts removed following her training ride crash in Girona in January. The Irish champion was hit head-on by a driver overtaking a cyclist on the opposite side of the road.

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”. However, the healing process has begun to kick in over the last five weeks and now the staples and casts are gone. As a result, she is more mobile and focused on coming back into racing with her new Plantur Pura pro team.

“It’s been a pretty big week with some pretty big steps taken,” she said. “The simple act of putting on my cycling kit and getting on the turbo, albeit only using my left leg, has made me feel more like myself again. I’m building up slowly.

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“I’ve
had all of my casts taken off, my knee brace is gone. I’ve started a more
intense physio regime now that I can begin to work more closely on my injuries.
I’m going six or seven times a week and using some of the best technology and
techniques, which is really helping to ease my anxiety surrounding the healing
process.”

Cotter added she was able to now afford the rehab regime she has embarked upon because of the donations people made via a GoFundMe page. It was set up by friends of hers and raised a massive €25,700. She said she was very thankful for the money “from the bottom of my heart and from the patella of my knee”.

The 28-year-old was one of the riders of the season last year; winning the Irish elite road race title in Co Wicklow. She also secured a professional contract with UCI team Plantur-Pura for this season, which is the women’s team owned by Alpecin Fenix.

Cotter was settling into life in Girona in the first weeks of the year, which she wrote about on stickytbottle, and was getting set for the her first season as a pro. However, the crash then occurred, in late January, and she is now undergoing the process of recovery and rehabilitation.