Imogen Cotter was set to start Tour de Romandie Féminin in Switzerland today, the first World Tour race of her career coming just over eight months after a career-threatening crash while training in Girona. It's an important day for the 29-year-old Plantur-Pura rider but one she feels ready for as she was lucky to survive her crash back in January. She has already ridden a series of races in recent weeks and has been getting used to her new team, and team mates, having been denied the chance to hit the road with them due to her injuries wiping out her season until now.
"It's such a professional set-up," she said of the team. "I was in Italy with them last weekend and everything - the recovery, the way the training rides are organised - everything is just so professional. It's incredibly well done. The team is so motivated."
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Cotter said she has been focused on using her condition at present - which she is rebuilding - to do what she can in races to aid the overall team effort.
"I've done some UCI races in Belgium and one in France and then Italy and now to Switzerland… and the girls are so encouraging, so nice. It's amazing and they've been a really understanding team. I didn't expect everyone to be as understanding as they have been," she told stickybottle.
The Clare woman 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.
However, after relocating to Girona in January she was hit by an oncoming driver while she was out training and suffered very serious injuries; shattering the bones in her knee and wrist and suffering soft tissue injuries in those two areas.
Cotter, who has undergone four surgeries this year, began training on the open roads again in mid July about one month after going under the knife for her wrist injury. She added once her wrist had recovered enough to train she found her rides were "going well, though not exactly groundbreaking" and was keen to race again as soon as she could.
"In my mind I wanted to pin on a number before the end of the season," she said. "Just for myself, mentally, it meant I wouldn't be going into next season and thinking to myself 'God, I haven't raced in a whole year'."
Cotter said when it was decided with her team that she would travel to Belgium for some UCI-ranked races she decided to go for a slightly longer trip so she could also take in some kermesse events.
She got the ball rolling on August 28th at a kermesse in Berlare, Belgium; riding for just over an hour and then pulling out, as per her plan. Three days later she was 14th, in a small field, in another kermesse in Puurs-Sint-Amands before riding the UCI 1.1-ranked Grote Prijs Beerens four days later and finishing it.
She then traveled to France for Travers les Hauts de France (1.2) on September 10th and while she as a non-finisher, that trip was more race miles - and time back in the bunch - in the bag. It also helped her settle in with her ream mates on the road; something she did not get to enjoy this year as she has been out injured.
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Most recently - on September 18th and just last Saturday - she rode GP d'Isbergues (1.2) in France and Giro dell'Emilia (1.Pro) in Italy; finishing both and placing 116th and 42nd. While far from getting carried away, the Irish woman is now firmly back in the bunch and finishing some hard races, with the Tour de Romandie over the next three days now next on the agenda.
"Every race I do is like another learning curve and while I'm fit, I'm not race fit if that makes sense," she said. "When you get to the punchy stuff at the end of a race, I wouldn't have it in the same way that I usually would."
She said while she always tried to focus on her positioning and to improve it, that aspect of her cycling was more important now than ever because her ability to close gaps - for now - was not what it had been last year. However, she said her condition was improving and once she had more training and racing miles completed she was fully confident she would regain that missing piece of firepower.
Cotter said while suffering broken bones during her crash was serious, the soft tissue injuries were more significant. Furthermore, while she was focused on the damage to her knee, and the need for that to fully recover, it was her wrist injuries that had posed more problems and which were lingering longest.
"I severed my quadriceps tendon (in the knee) and that's normally a very long recovery," she said. "Eight months is the normal, guideline recovery period for that so I've been very lucky with that because I was able to get back cycling before that."
Those injuries around the broken bones to her right kneed meant she "lacked explosiveness" in her leg, but that would "build back up again" in time and she was satisfied the central injuries had been recovered from.
"That explosiveness will come again with an extended period of work in the gym, which I just haven't had a chance to do yet. But this winter will be a big one." Cotter said her wrist - though not regarded as problematic for cyclists as a bad knee injury - had become "a disaster" over time as the surgery performed on it immediately after her crash in Girona was substandard.
"The plates they put in were at a wrong angle, the plates were too big," she said, adding a fragment of bone was also "left floating". However, when she went for specialist surgery in Belgium for her knee she met a wrist specialist who insisted on operating on her arm again to correct it.
After every surgery she said she was mentally shattered for a couple of weeks. As a result, she decided to continue working away on her knee and when she had made more progress with that she decided to have the wrist surgery in June in Belgium.
The latest review post-surgery had confirmed the bone was now fully healed, though another surgery has been recommended in Belgium, with scar tissue set to be removed and other work performed that should set it up for a full recovery.
"At the moment, in races the wrist has been more painful," she said. "In racing you're handling your bike more aggressively. On a training ride you might be able to lift her hands off the bars for a bump in the road but in racing you can't do that."
Cotter added it was "frustrating" that her knee injury, which was of most concern, had made so much progress while her wrist was taking more time. However, she was very pleased to have gotten a series of races completed and she believed that was a significant juncture for her as she looked ahead to full recover and a clearer run at next year.
