"There is no right or wrong way to respond to a crash."
This is what Ruth Anderson, a psychologist who has worked closely with Great Britain and Australia’s Olympic cycling teams, said when I asked her to share her tips for someone who has just had a crash and is struggling to get back on their bike, not because of their injuries, but because of their minds. "Sometimes there's a lot of expectation to manage something in the right way, but what's important is that the rider does what's best for them in the current moment," she added.
Having a crash on your bike is never a nice experience, whether you are a WorldTour pro or a complete newbie, but it happens to most cyclists. So, if you’ve recently had a crash and are now struggling to find the confidence you once had on the bike, then you are not alone. "Any kind of trauma will leave an imprint on the mind," she said – reminding people that sometimes it is not always as easy as "just getting back out there".
First and foremost, Anderson stressed the importance of only getting back on your bike once you have physically fully recovered and have had the OK from any medical practitioners if required. This is particularly important for those who have had concussion as anxiety can be a symptom, Anderson said.
"I often think there is a lot of urgency to get back out on the bike," she said, "but it is really important to make sure you are also thinking through the long-term implications. For example, if you don’t rehab properly, you’ve got the potential for re-injury."
But she also noted that once fully recovered you shouldn’t leave it too long to get back on the bike, either. "There is a temptation sometimes to try and avoid experiencing those feelings of anxiety, so people will put it off and put it off, however, this will only make it more difficult," she added. Instead, she suggested that those who are struggling with anxiety or lack of confidence take a "graded approach" to getting back out on the bike – slowly easing yourself back in.
This approach means that you’ll expose yourself to those experiences that are causing anxiety, but by gradually introducing them, your mind will learn how to cope with the anxiety-provoking situation. "For some people, for example, they might struggle with descents, so they’ll start with a descent they know is within their capabilities and then they’ll increase the level of difficulty over time to be able to manage, or ability to control, the anxiety. Then you will build a tolerance for it," Anderson said.
This tolerance will help to build your confidence back up over time, so there is no pressure for you to go from zero to 100 straightaway following a crash. Anderson points out that any "stoic" behaviour of pushing through any anxiety and not admitting that you are feeling a certain way can work for some people but will often lead to it returning later down the line. Anderson said: "What is really important, I think, is that people are honest about the impact of the crash. Fear or anxiety is a natural reaction for any rider, no matter how experienced."
Learning to overcome the mind is a tough task, and it does take work to overcome any sort of anxiety. Anderson pointed out that “it’s never going to be perfect” having worked with all different athletes at the complete top of their game. But what she is keen to stress is that recovery is different for everyone and during her time working with Great Britain ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, she’d work with athletes after a crash to make sure recovery was individual to them and as a result, she said, the athlete would often become a better cyclist because of it.
"When you learn to manage a higher level of anxiety, you’re going to be able to tolerate better in the middle of a race or the middle of the peloton," she added. "Even elite athletes don’t just know how to automatically manage those circumstances, they become skilled at it, but because they have worked at it over time. It’s a skill, like every other part of your training regime."
Imogen Cotter, a former professional cyclist, was involved in a head-on road collision with a van when out on her bike in January 2022. The accident left her with a broken patella and a displaced fracture in her distal radius, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. However, she didn't quite realise the extent of her mental health until 18 months post-accident.
"I didn’t allow myself to acknowledge how much the crash had affected me mentally. I was so incredibly focused on my physical recovery that it would have taken too much energy to start dealing with the mental impact it had. Crashing is scary anyway, but nearly dying is a lot scarier. Focusing on the physical side of things was more controllable, and it’s something I’m proud of doing. After the initial 18-month period, once I was as physically healed as I would be and the surgeries were done, I started to realise how much I was struggling mentally, with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and anxiety on the bike and specifically in racing. I started therapy in December 2022, but I wasn’t really ready for it. I started properly with a therapist in February of 2024, with a type of therapy called EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing), which helped me massively," she said.
Cotter explained that before starting therapy two years after her crash, she couldn't handle the emotions and couldn't process the memory. She added: "Being able to put the memory in the past, to acknowledge how terrifying it was, to acknowledge how much I had pushed myself to get back on the bike despite everything telling me to stop and to accept that my cycling career didn’t go the way I wanted was a really difficult and emotional journey. It is maybe just as big of an accomplishment to me as winning the National Championships that I could get to the stage of mental clarity and radical acceptance about these things before deciding to retire."
She admitted that while she is proud of the return she made to a high level of racing, on reflection, she feels she returned to the bike too quickly, having felt a pressure to get back into racing soon after to prove everyone wrong. Not only was it five months after her crash that she was back riding outdoors, but soon after her crash, Cotter was on the turbo, training inside with one leg and her injured leg on a chair. "This was a bit crazy to reflect on," she said.
She reminded people who have recently suffered a crash not to put pressure on themselves and not to suffer in silence, adding: "I looked at riders who’d had huge crashes like [Egan] Bernal and Remco [Evenepoel] and would look at their return to racing and the supportive team around them, and remember feeling like I was tackling this massive life-changing event on my own, but I should have accepted help from the people around me. And start therapy."
Cotter's recovery is one example of the path back to confidence on the bike, but as Anderson said, there is no right or wrong way to respond to a crash. Even Cotter looks back on her journey and sees where she could have done things differently to help her process the emotions that occur in response to a crash.
"It is about finding the right balance between pushing yourself enough where the anxiety feels OK and pushing yourself too much that you feel out of control," Anderson finished. "I am a big advocate for pushing yourself when you can, but just make sure it is appropriate and right for you."
