The 21-year-old Brit cyclist Kate Richardson was hit by a car on her training just ahead of the Tour of Britain Women. The continental team Lifeplus Wahoo rider suffered a fractured scapula a multiple bruises. The driver fleed the scene.
"Yesterday morning I was hit by a car from behind whilst out on a training ride, resulting in a refractured scapula, an incredibly bruised and swollen right hip and plenty more road rash to add to last week’s collection," she started her Instagram post with noticeable annoyment.
"Whilst racing incidents are never nice, we know that unfortunately they sometimes come with the territory. Even when not at fault we have no choice but to accept them and move on. This however, is incredibly hard to accept. It just should never have happened," is Richardson's understandable opinion. "There are far too many stories about cyclists being hit by cars whilst out training and there is absolutely no excusing it."
"In this case, I was on a narrow single track road, no more than 3m wide, on a blind bend and clearly the driver couldn’t wait 10 more seconds to overtake me. He decided to try and squeeze his huge 4x4 past me at a high speed, hitting me hard and knocking me off my bike."
"Initially, he just drove on but turned around and came back later to verbally abuse and threaten me before getting back in his car and driving off again. Thankfully another driver came across the scene pretty quickly and kindly helped me up and drove me home."
"This of course means no Tour of Britain this week and I’m currently uncertain about what the rest of the season holds. This is a lot more than just a physical injury, it was incredibly scary and I count myself lucky that I walked away relatively unscathed compared to what it could have been. Mentally though, it will take a while to overcome."
Team rider Kate Richardson was hit from behind by a car during a training ride yesterday. Injuries sustained include a re fractured scapula. No Tour of Britain for Kate and we’ll be assisting her recovery and aiding her journey back to training when suitable.
