Produced in association with MAAP
On January 26, 2022, Imogen Cotter’s life changed forever. Things started off as normal when she set out on her training in Girona, but Cotter would not return home from her ride that day. Instead she lay in a Spanish hospital with a fractured patella, radius and a broken dream. She was the Irish national champion, she had a contract with a professional team and was on track to making it to the top of the sport she loved. In a split second, through the actions of one careless driver, it had all been taken away.
"I feel so lucky to be alive. I was taken by ambulance to hospital, where it appears I fractured my patella and broke my radius, as well as needing quite a few stitches. I had surgery late last night. I’m just so grateful to still be here to write this. It could have been so much worse,” the 31-year-old wrote on Instagram after the crash to her 100,000 followers.
The period after that fateful accident was long and testing: Cotter went through strenuous rehabilitation programs to get back on her bike, battling hard to try and overcome both the physical and mental aspects of her recovery. Simply being able to walk normally again after her injuries was an achievement in itself, but the Irish woman, against the odds, made it back to the peloton because – as we will discover – Imogen Cotter is not the type of person who gives up easily.
Three years on, Cotter is no longer pursuing professional bike racing, but she does not view this as failure. She’s a happier person since she made the decision to step away from elite-level cycling last year – if you’d told her this when she was in the emergency room in 2022, she wouldn’t have believed you.
“I was struggling so much mentally to actually ride my bike. I was having these flashbacks of violent images when I'd be descending or in a race – really bloody imagery. I had to stop out of necessity, it wasn’t healthy for me to continue going on,” Cotter explains.
“I knew I was doing myself more harm than good to continue racing. It's so hard to even think back on how different things could have been because it was such a significant thing to even come back from – to even ride my bike casually after that would have been a blessing, but to get my old power numbers back, it was against all the odds. My cycling journey is full of hard downs and beautiful ups. I can’t rewrite that chapter, I can’t imagine it any other way.”
It’s a testament to Cotter’s character that she has managed to turn what happened to her into a positive force for good. She has become an advocate for road safety in cycling, using her own platform to speak on behalf of cyclists everywhere regarding changes that need to be implemented to ensure fewer people suffer the same fate she did. It’s not been an easy journey to get to this point.
“I remember the longer that I didn’t hear from the driver who hit me, I was really angry. He hadn’t reached out to say sorry, I never heard from him. I did therapy and dealt with the anger I felt and then I forgot he existed. But often I’ll still pass white vans on the road and I’ll look in the window to see if it’s him. I’d love to see him one time but I’m not angry towards him,” Cotter says. “I just think if I was angry, what good would it do to me? It’s radical acceptance. That's the way to heal.”
Cotter explains that as soon as she began to share her story on social media, she realised the extent to which other people had been through similar experiences. It became apparent to Cotter that not only is there a lack of safety measures for cyclists on the road, there’s also a lack of serious consequences for drivers. She appeared on an advert for the Road Safety Authority in Ireland which was broadcast across the country on television and has since spoken at various conferences and to companies with a focus on road safety.
“It’s been amazing for me to be even able to get into these rooms with people who have influence and to be able to speak from our point of view and to represent us. If there was any good to come out of this, that would be it. Before I do any of these talks, I'll often ask my followers: ‘Is there something you want me to say?’ Because this is a time when I'm going to be in a room with people who can make a difference for us,” Cotter says.
“The crash could have destroyed my relationship with cycling and I might never have wanted to talk about it. But even going out for rides now I think this is me, taking back my power. I might be afraid, but I'm still here doing it.”
Since she has stopped following a stringent training regime, Cotter says she has discovered a side to cycling that steadily faded away during her career: enjoyment and community. Cafe stops and riding a bike for fun were once a foreign concept, but they are something she has fully embraced in her new chapter on two wheels.
“There's no pressure on me anymore. The more I heal, the less ambition I have. When it comes to how many watts I can push for 20 minutes, I just laugh at it. I’ve met people with a similar vibe and approach to cycling, that we just want to enjoy it,” Cotter reflects. “I do think that even though cycling is a team sport, it can become quite individualistic at times. That’s been one of the biggest changes for me since retirement, finding the community aspect of exercise.”
Although bike racing is no longer a part of her life, Cotter is a born athlete. Before cycling, she used to compete at in cross-country running but switched to two wheels after a taking part in a talent transfer programme. Since retiring, the 31-year-old has competed in the Barcelona half-marathon – she finished with a time of 1:27:11, superseding her target of doing the distance in under an hour-and-a-half. Running events help to give Cotter the goals and drive she misses now she doesn’t race bikes.
“I want to be competitive, but I'm also really aware of the limitations that I have because of my knee injury, so I'm not comparing myself to the old me. This is Imogen 2.0. I'm enjoying this but there's no pressure, let me just see what I can achieve,” she explains. “I think that I was so used to having goals all of the time in cycling that it was a bit of an adjustment to just enjoy riding my bike now – running has made that transition a bit easier.”
She adds that the Barcelona half-marathon felt like a pivotal moment in her sporting journey: “Youri, my partner, met me when I couldn’t walk properly and he was more emotional than I was when I got to the finish line of the half-marathon,” Cotter smiles.
“He was like: ‘You have no idea how amazing it is to see where you have come from in the last three years to now.’ Sometimes you need someone to help you take a step back and think actually, that was incredible. My time isn’t going to break any records but for me it was a moment to look back and see what I’ve gone through to get to this point.”
One of the most important things that Cotter has gained from that dreaded day in January three years ago is perspective. Power numbers and personal bests pale in comparison to the luxury of having the ability to do exercise at all. The Irish rider is still figuring out what her life looks like in a world without bike racing, but she explains each day which passes by when she is able to go outside and move her body is enough.
“Yesterday I was making a video trying to better my time on one of the local climbs for content and actually halfway up I just started laughing to myself,” Cotter says.
“I knew it was ridiculous, no one really cares about these things. It’s a great privilege to worry about how many watts we can push or what our FTP is. That’s such an insignificant thing. I still want to push myself, but above all I just do sport because I enjoy it – it’s not something I measure my worth by anymore.”
