Sprint cyclist Ellie Richardson opens heart on close call with death in horror road accident

AS she lay scrunched up inside her mangled motor waiting to pass out, Ellie Richardson thought it was game over.

Not only on her hopes of starring in a first Commonwealth Games but actually seeing them take place on home soil at all.

A freak accident on the motorway up to Glasgow had seen her Skoda roll three times before coming to rest on its roof. It all unfolded in the space of five terrifying seconds but for the track sprint cyclist it felt like a lifetime.

A prolonged ankle injury had cut short a career in athletics and destroyed Ellie’s hopes of making Delhi four years earlier. Now the double Scottish National champion was left wondering whether this would be a case of different sport, same story.

Now, for the first time, the 28-year-old has spoken about that fateful day six months ago and the remarkable road to recovery she’s been on since.

Ellie said: “I was on the motorway on the way up here to a training camp and I don’t know what happened – whether I aquaplaned or a tyre blew – suddenly I lost control of the car.

“I was going about 60 and it started rolling across three lanes on the motorway, landed upside down, roof crushed in, the car was horrific.

“It rolled three times so it lasted probably about three to five seconds, which doesn’t sound like a long time but it’s slow motion isn’t it.

“I was waiting to pass out. The roof was crushing in on me and I was kind of crouching down. I could feel the metal going into my head and my ribs cracking with the seatbelt.

“As I went into it I literally did think it was game over. It was the closest I’ve come to anything like that. I just wanted to pass out.

“I was airlifted to hospital. Thankfully I was the only one in the car and didn’t crash into anybody else. There were a couple of witnesses but nobody knew what happened and I certainly didn’t.

“I was worried it was going to be the world’s most expensive car crash because all of my bike stuff was inside and cycling is expensive. Thankfully everything was unscathed but the car was a complete wreck.”

Incredibly, Richardson was released from hospital just 24 hours later after suffering mild concussion.

The qualified physio, who is based in Manchester, was left with a number of fractured ribs while others at the front of her chest had been displaced.

The Wester Ross rider bravely got back behind the wheel just three weeks later, though her return to the saddle was equally as gruelling.

A virus over the Christmas break combined with her injuries meant she only resumed regular training three weeks ahead of her first qualification date on April 1.

She said: “I got back on my static bike fairly early, obviously with support on round my ribs, quite sat up, just turning my legs over.

“But I had to follow minor head injury guidelines afterwards because for concussion you have to try something and if you have dizziness you have to leave it 48 hours and then try the same thing again.

“That could just be five minutes on a bike and then you have to follow that through. And then obviously you’ve got the normal healing process.

“It was three months until I could get out of the saddle and because I do sprint events everything is explosive, it’s all peck activation when you pull out.

“It was difficult but it definitely made me more focused and hone in more on the 500m because there are two events going for my discipline at the Games.

“I made an early decision that, given my lack of experience, if I tried to get good at everything I would miss the qualifying for everything and probably improve both but not enough. I surprised myself and a few people by riding a personal best in my first qualifying attempt after that sort of winter.”

Having only started cycling in the summer of 2011, the former sprinter knows she’s only scratched the surface when it comes to her potential on the track.

Last May, she smashed world and Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton’s 11-year-old record for the 500m time trial at the British University Championships.

Given much of the year since has been punctured by one unlucky situation after another Richardson is just delighted to overcome what was fast becoming a Commonwealth Games curse.

She said: “I’d like to be a little bit nearer to my potential but realistically, because I only started three years ago, that was never going to be this year. That’s likely to be in a couple of years’ time.

“But I’m super excited. I really wanted to go to Delhi in athletics and ankle surgery took me out of that. I wasn’t able to go and post the qualifying times I wanted to.

“So to be here now in a home Games in a sport I didn’t even think I would be doing, it is amazing. I thought my sporting days were over. The only thing I’m sad about is my nana, who’s from Perthshire, passed away about two years ago. She was a wonderful lady and we were really close.

“She was so proud of my sister and I and would have loved to see me go to Delhi and she would have loved even more to come to Glasgow.

“But something that I did use as a motivating factor was when I bought my bike – the make is a Dolan - I decided to call it ‘Donny the Dolan’ because my nana’s name is Donnella, so I had it stuck on to the bike.

“Donny will be with me in 2014 and she’ll actually be there track centre, although she’s not there in person. That was a big driving factor for me. That’s something I held on to because it would have been so important to her.”

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCrnZOkv6V6wqhlrqNfqL2wvtNomqilnaS7uLHApauhZZeWuqa%2Fjqynq6GeqXqkxcKloKysXZq5rbXEZqmim5iWv6W%2FzqdkqKiVo8Buf5dtcHFsYg%3D%3D