“I’ve cried at the roadside after close passes”: “Anxious and scared” pro cyclist retires two years after being hit head-on by speeding driver; Is Zwift’s Big Spin feeding into cyclists’ gambling addictions?; Ineos AI Pidcock clip + more on the live blog

Imogen Cotter, a former Irish road race champion whose professional cycling career was abruptly derailed when a speeding, overtaking motorist struck her head-on while training, has announced her retirement from the sport after revealing that she has cried on the side of the road “on multiple occasions” in the wake of close passes.

Cotter, who signed her first pro contract with UCI Continental squad Plantur-Pura for 2022 after previously representing Movistar’s e-racing team and winning the Irish nationals in October 2021, was training near her new home of Girona in January 2022 when she was hit by the driver, who was overtaking a cyclist on the other side of the road.

Following the collision, after which the 30-year-old said she felt “so lucky to be alive”, Cotter had plates and metal screws inserted into her patella, and plates were also inserted on the outer and inner bones of her forearm. According to Cotter, scans at the time showed that there “was no cartilage left in my right knee”, which also required 40 metal staples to ensure the wound healed.

> Pro cyclist Imogen Cotter launches road safety campaign, says “drivers see cyclists as an object that interferes with their journey”

Last May, she partnered with the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and Škoda Ireland to launch a new road safety campaign urging motorists to “slow down and share the roads safely with people cycling”, noting that many “drivers see cyclists as an object that interferes with their journey”.

After making her comeback on the pro scene that August following months of rehab and recovery, Cotter raced for Fenix-Deceuninck’s development squad – representing the elite team against the likes of Demi Vollering at a handful of races including the Brabantse Pijl and the Giro dell’Emilia – before joining the British outfit Hess Cycling for 2024.

However, last night she announced she was stepping away from the peloton for good after a turbulent few years, revealing that racing and training, along with the constant threat of close passes, were making her anxious and suffering from panic attacks.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Imogen Cotter (@imogencotter)

“The time has come for me to announce my retirement from professional cycling!” Cotter wrote on social media. “I make this announcement with happiness and peace in my heart. I’ve been so lucky with how understanding and accommodating Hess Cycling have been throughout this process - thank you.

“As this season got underway, I realised that racing was not making me happy anymore, it was making me anxious and scared. Many training rides have ended with me feeling the beginnings of a panic attack, and I’ve found myself crying at the side of the road on multiple occasions after close passes.

“I started to wonder, why was I putting myself through this? I didn’t nearly die two years ago just to spend my days on this planet feeling unhappy. We only have one life. That’s when I knew it was time for a change.

“While I still love cycling and know that it will always be a big part of my life, it has felt near impossible to perform at a level that I can be proud of these last few months. After pushing through setbacks and trauma in the last two years, I am ready to approach cycling, and life, in a calmer way.

“I am proud of a lot of things that I achieved within cycling but the hard work that I have done mentally to make this decision is up there with the best. The fight back from what would have ended most people’s careers comes a close second! Getting my pre-crash power back was something many doubted, yet I did it – and more. I can retire from racing knowing that I am unstoppable – but I choose to stop.”

Is the Big Spin, the latest game-style event to hit online cycling platform Zwift, feeding into people’s gambling addictions, fostering unhealthy exercise habits, and increasing the risk of burnout, injuries, and anxiety?

That’s the – fairly unusual, I’ll admit – question posed by sometime road.cc contributor Christopher Schwenker, in an article published on his Zommunique website titled: ‘The Zwift Big Spin: The Fitness Phenomenon That’s Sweeping the Metaverse—Should We Worry?’

For those of you who prefer riding your bike outside, or don’t delve too deep into the Zwift world, the Zwift Big Spin is, in the words of the platform’s PR director Chris Snook, a new “fun game-show-style experience where Zwifters are rewarded for every ride they complete”.

Essentially, over the past few weeks, Zwift users have been encouraged to complete rides from four different stages (with two ‘make-up weeks’ currently taking place at the minute).

For each ride you complete, you get to spin the wheel (a digital version of Bruce Forsyth was unavailable), winning “unlocks” such as kit, socks, helmets – all virtual, I should clarify – and, potentially, the grand prize of the ‘Atomic Cruiser’.

“It is the first time we’ve offered Zwifters the chance to collect a host of limited edition unlocks purely based on chance, so it gives Zwifters motivation to return and complete stages more than once,” Snook says.

But as Schwenker notes, lots of people complete the stages a lot more than once. He notes that the top twenty participants spun the Big Wheel over 850 times during the campaign’s first two weeks, with the grand prize going to the user who completed the event almost 70 times.

Meanwhile, over on a Zwift Facebook group, messages such as “I was off work, so I did it all day and got 15 spins”, “I burned 6,000 calories in two days trying to unlock the bike alone,” “It took me sixteen tries in one week to get the Atomic Cruiser”.

This addictive quality has divided experts from the fields of sport and exercise, psychology, and even gambling.

“Intermittent rewards are incredibly addictive and can increase the risk of engagement in unhealthy behaviours,” says Mindful Child and Family Therapy founder Jaclyn Long.

“In the cycling world, riddled with perfectionists and overachievers, offering intermittent rewards might lead to an increased risk of injuries due to overtraining and the emotional toll that increased pressure and resulting anxiety might put on an already-strained system.” 

Meanwhile, Psychologist Lisa Macias, who has treated many athletes and addicts, added: “It’s commonly believed that financial reward is a primary motivator for gambling. Interestingly, dopamine (a neurotransmitter that affects the brain’s reward system associated with pleasure, motivation, and mood) release from gambling is related to the unpredictability of the reward. 

“Pairing intense physical activity such as biking, which triggers dopamine release with intermittent rewards, may result in excess dopamine. A heightened dopamine reaction to the exercise and gambling stimulus has the potential to create difficulties with impulse control, a driver for addictive, compulsive behaviours.”

Andrew Richardson, a research associate at Newcastle University in Gambling Harms and editor of the International Journal of Esports, says the Zwift Big Spin is the first online sport platform “requiring physical effort to gamble”, and says the event should be monitored to prevent the “out of control pursuit” of rewards.

“First, I am always pleased to see new and unique ways to get more people active. We cannot ignore the physical and mental health benefits of exercising at an individual level or with a community of friends,” he says.

“[However], the organisers could cap the number of bets (rides) a user can place to mitigate the likelihood of harm, promote safe fitness practices, and foster harm reduction principles.” 

On the other hand, others have stressed that the addictive qualities of the Big Spin are entirely dependent on an individual’s personality, and that the downsides of the campaign should be balanced with its ability to increase exercise and improve its participants’ health.

“Some riders feel a pressing need to complete events to unlock new items, sometimes at the cost of training and event performance,” says sport and exercise scientist Andy Turner.

“While there are personality types for whom this behaviour can become detrimental, for the majority, the event serves as an excellent means of increasing activity levels and engagement.”

“I love the Big Spin,” adds USA Cycling Esports national champion and USAC Esports committee member Dr Jenn Real.

“The randomness keeps it fun and entertaining and provides extra motivation. It kept me on the trainer when I would usually have stopped because I wanted those darn headphones! I don’t really think there’s anything negative about it. Zwift does a great job of keeping otherwise boring training fun.

“The psychology of random rewards is fascinating, and it explains the massive success of the Big Spin compared to other events where there’s a set unlock.”

What do you think? Is the increasing gamification of indoor training potentially harmful, or is it there simply to make you fitter and healthier?

Thérèse Coffey, the Conservative politician who for a brief period during the autumn of 2022 served as health secretary during Liz Truss’ ill-fated stint as prime minister, has lashed out at an active travel project in her Suffolk constituency, claiming that it is “anti-driver”.

Ms Coffey suggested the £5 million of funding for the Woodbridge active travel scheme would be better spent providing cycling proficiency courses at local schools, improving crossing points for pedestrians and cyclists, and repairing road and pavement surfaces.

Read more: > Former health minister Thérèse Coffey claims plan to boost cycling and walking is “anti-driver”

Decathlon may be styling their Van Rysel RCR PRO bike as the most “affordable” WorldTour bike around, but cycling author Simon Warren has raised a valid point about the state of an industry where a £9,000 luxury item can be classified as the ‘cheapest’ anything…

2024.
£9,000 = Affordable.

Just me then.

— Simon Warren (@100Climbs) April 16, 2024

Just imagine what else you could come home with if you spent £9k in Decathlon. You'd need an 18 wheeler to get it all home and two lifetimes to use it all.
Bikes are BONKERS expensive.

— Simon Warren (@100Climbs) April 16, 2024

> Fancy a replica of the 'cheapest' World Tour bike? The Van Rysel RCR PRO team edition is (almost) ready to pre-order from Decathlon

Hmmm… What do you think? Have bike prices jumped the shark? Anyway, I’m off to gawp at all those superbikes I’ll never be able to afford. But they’re so shiny…

> The most expensive road bikes in the world — here are some of the priciest production bikes you can buy

17km for the 🥇 what a ride from @ADM_RossodiBuja to finish in glory in Stans @GreenEDGEteam #TouroftheAlps #TotA #LiveUphill pic.twitter.com/biQNrfo9tZ

— Tour of The Alps (@Tourof_TheAlps) April 16, 2024

It was a case of old dog, same tricks at the Tour of the Alps today, as Jayco AlUla’s 37-year-old Italian veteran secured an impressive solo victory in the Austrian village of Stans, the seventh win of his 14-year pro career and his Australian team’s first victory in two months.

The three-time Vuelta stage winner was part of the day-long break that included Bora’s Patrick Gamper, Simon Pellaud of Tudor, and the currently unattached Austrian Lukas Pöstlberger, as the Ineos Grenadiers – controlling things for yesterday’s stage winner and race leader Tobias Foss – led a relatively sleepy peloton behind.

With two kilometres to go on the final climb of Gnadenwald, 17km from the finish, De Marchi dispatched Gamper and Pellaud, before opening up an insurmountable gap on the descent to cruise to the win, over 1.20 ahead of the chasing pair.

Alessandro De Marchi @ADM_RossodiBuja - @GreenEDGEteam goes solo for 17km and wins stage 2 from Salurn/Salorno to Stans

#TouroftheAlps #TotA #LiveUphill pic.twitter.com/w452TesSte

— Tour of The Alps (@Tourof_TheAlps) April 16, 2024

“I was confident. Two years ago, I found a nice environment at Jayco, and it was just about waiting for the right moment and the right time,” De Marchi, who will hope his Alpine escapades secure his slot at the Giro next month – where he will be aiming for a maiden career stage win at his home grand tour – said at the finish.

“With a bit of luck and with a bit of courage, it can happen. When you are almost 38 in this [era of] cycling, a win like this is one of my most important. And at my age, in this cycling, it means a lot.”

In news that completely contradicts this morning’s report that Jonas Vingegaard was set for a prolonged stay in a Basque hospital following his horror crash at the region’s home tour, Visma-Lease a Bike have – very timely and helpfully, I may add – confirmed this lunchtime that the two-time Tour de France winner has instead been discharged and will return home to “fully recover” from his injuries.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@teamvisma_leaseabike)

“Hello everyone, it's time for me to leave the hospital,” Vingegaard is quoted as saying in Visma’s social media post, featuring photos of the sling-wearing Dane standing outside the hospital in Vitoria, where he was treated for a broken collarbone, several broken ribs, a pulmonary contusion, and a collapsed lung following his shocking, high speed crash at the Tour of the Basque Country 12 days ago.

“I want to thank all the medical staff for taking so good care of me. And I want to thank everyone for their moral support. I have received a lot of messages, presents and drawings. Heartwarming! Now it's time to fully recover again. Thumbs up!!”

So much for the doctors’ opinions, eh?

This latest attempt by a council to make road safety all about people riding bikes and their choice of kit and clothing hasn’t gone down too well with one Dublin cyclist:

Who decides the hot topic for this valuable bit of advertising space? Is 'Cyclists Light Up' really the best option, for April, after clocks changed? How about 'Drivers - Phone Down' or 'Drivers - Get Out Of Bus Lane'? Time to review? @pidge @darragh_mor @carolynmoore_ie pic.twitter.com/4sZmP7agTg

— RobOMhantáin (@mhantain) April 16, 2024

Though, as a few in the road.cc office have noted, ‘Pedestrians, watch out for the massive pole in the middle of the pavement’ might be a decent shout for the council’s next safety message…

🦅 @INEOSGrenadiers you’re okay?

🇮🇹 #TOTA pic.twitter.com/V50YdhiEh0

— Tour de Tietema (@tourdetietema) April 15, 2024

Next time, either at the Tour of the Alps today or tomorrow’s Flèche Wallonne, you see a peloton of 180 or so riders streaming through a feed zone, take a moment to reflect on how expertly (most) pro cyclists navigate the organised chaos of grabbing bottles and mussettes from the outstretched hands of nonchalant swannies at the side of the road.

Because, as Dutch triathlete Youri Keulen proved during the bike section of the Singapore T100 triathlon at the weekend, grabbing bottles at speed ain’t easy:

🤦

New rules for bottle handovers are leading to a few slapstick moments at the Singapore T100 💧 @t100triathlon pic.twitter.com/3zfBxTyAb5

— Eurosport (@eurosport) April 14, 2024

Five bottles in a row? Were they covered in butter?

Anyway, despite his feed station faux pas – I can hear Carlton Kirby utter the word ‘sustenance’ as I type – Keulen held on to his lead to secure his maiden T100 World Tour victory, along with his place in internet infamy.

His slippery fingers weren’t alone in Singapore, however, with Chelsea Sodaro experiencing her own feed zone problems in the women’s race – though, unlike Youri, at least Sodaro was able to grab that elusive fifth bottle…

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Eurosport (@eurosport)

Perhaps the triathletes could borrow a page from the cycling feed zone handbook and grab their bottles from the right-hand side of the road next time? Just a thought…