{"id":3494,"date":"2021-11-17T11:54:12","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T11:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/ie\/?p=3494"},"modified":"2021-11-17T11:54:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T11:54:12","slug":"i-dont-put-limitations-on-myself-anymore-irish-womens-elite-road-race-champion-imogen-cotter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/ie\/2021\/11\/17\/i-dont-put-limitations-on-myself-anymore-irish-womens-elite-road-race-champion-imogen-cotter\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI don\u2019t put limitations on myself anymore\u201d \u2014 Irish Women’s Elite Road Race Champion Imogen Cotter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI always had imposter syndrome, because I came to cycling so late. You set a limitation in your mind \u2013 but once you get past that\u2026 even last weekend in London, people were introducing me saying, \u2018This is Imogen, she\u2019s Irish national champion.\u2019 And I\u2019d think \u2018Oh my God \u2013 I am! That\u2019s me!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When WeLoveCycling last checked in with Imogen Cotter, the Irish National Championships were just four weeks away \u2013 and, somehow, they didn\u2019t come up in conversation. It made it all the more incredible, then, that the Clare-born cyclist claimed the Women\u2019s Elite Road Race crown in October, realising a dream and cementing her place at the top table of riders in Ireland today. From her home (for now!) in Ruan, she reflects on an astonishing race and a life-changing few months \u2013 and, first, the art of keeping a secret\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, were you quietly plotting a National Championship win without telling anybody?<\/strong>
\nHaha! I would have written it down, it was on my vision board, and it was something that I\u2019d have said to my nearest and dearest \u2013 but it was something I was afraid to say out loud. I do believe in speaking things into existence, but you don\u2019t need to do it with everybody! You feel vulnerable if you tell everyone about every goal. It was something I wanted so badly, but it just felt like it was maybe out of reach.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve said that things only came together in the six-to-eight weeks before the race. Take us back to before the change\u2026<\/strong>
\nI\u2019d had a bad start to my year; I wasn\u2019t in a great headspace, and I was really struggling with being in Belgium, so far from home. They always say, \u2018Happy head, happy legs\u2019 \u2013 and I felt the opposite of that. For a lot of the racing at the beginning of the year, we were lumped in with World Tour professional riders. I felt out of my depth; I was trying to compete with these pros and getting my ass handed to me. The longer it went on, the more down I got on myself \u2013 almost like a learned behaviour. I\u2019d go to the back of the peloton, where it\u2019s all the harder. I just felt a bit lost.<\/p>\n

It came to a head at the end of June, in a stage race in Belgium. I\u2019d had a few good races and a few bad ones, but I wasn\u2019t feeling confident. On the first day, the first 30km, I was gone; I dropped off the back, and went the last 100km on my own \u2013 the cars had passed up the road and everything. I wasn\u2019t allowed to start the next day, and I asked myself, \u2018What am I doing?\u2019 I\u2019m 28 years of age, people around me are saving for a house, or progressing in their careers, and what was I doing? Should I keep going? I really felt like it was my last couple of months, and I needed to figure out what I was going to do.<\/p>\n

At which point you found an answer?<\/strong>
\nThe day after that, I went to get a coffee, sitting on my own, knowing I should have been racing that day. I found this article by a sports psychologist about riding with fear; I reached out, and asked if she had other material I could read. She sent on her book \u2013 On Top Of Your Game, by Carrie Cheadle \u2013 and I downloaded it on my Kindle. It felt like she had written it for me. I sat there reading it, crying, and from that moment everything changed.<\/p>\n

I started going to see a sports psychologist, Anne-Marie Kennedy. I\u2019d spend maybe an hour a day envisioning myself as a good athlete, instead of sitting at the back of the peloton. I also made the decision that I needed to move on from my coach, and find someone to give me the attention I needed. And also, in August, I went home to my family \u2013 when we last spoke, in fact. The sports psychologist, the new coach, being at home with family \u2013 I changed completely as an athlete in that month. It all came together, all started to click.<\/p>\n

So there was a quiet confidence before the Nationals?<\/strong>
\nIf you were at home here, there was loud confidence. \u2018Let\u2019s get this jersey, let\u2019s bring this home!\u2019 This is how I\u2019ve been for the past couple of months, just saying everything out loud, and every day. \u2018My life is about to change!\u2019 I could see it written: Imogen Cotter, National Champion. Oh, and I felt crap; I\u2019d just done a 350km gravel race in Girona, and I only had a week to recover. The first 50km of the National Championships was tough\u2026<\/p>\n

Not the ideal prep, then! So, talk us through the race\u2026
\nI\u2019m used to setting and keeping a hard tempo, but one of the girls was surging and coming back; that was wrecking my legs. But I know I\u2019m a good climber; if I\u2019m suffering, then everyone else is suffering as well! The day before, one of the guys told me how I should approach the race \u2013 and on the last climb I put my head down and went for it. I knew I couldn\u2019t bring a lot of the girls to the line; I was going to have to lose some people. On the descent, I had a gap \u2013 a small one \u2013 but I thought to myself, \u2018Now I have it\u2019. The adrenaline you get when you say something like that, it gives you the extra kick you need. My senses were tingling; my whole body was ready to sprint.<\/p>\n

Which isn\u2019t the norm?<\/strong>
\nI hate sprinting! I hate sprinting, but I\u2019d been going…eh, not well, but every race that I\u2019d done since changing coaches I\u2019d been doing intervals and setting a PB on my power. The day before the race, I did an interval on the course, on the finish, and I set a PB. I saw myself winning it then, and so when I was coming to the line on the day I had it in my mind already.<\/p>\n

Crossing that line, I\u2019ll never ever forget it. It was an incredible feeling. It was like the road opened up, as though it was a dream; it lit up, and all of a sudden it was like I was transported. I went back the next day to watch the junior women, and thought, \u2018Hang on, is this even the same road?\u2019 In my mind it was a dual carriageway with spotlights, not a normal road in Wicklow!<\/p>\n

And it seems fair to say that it\u2019s changed everything for you\u2026<\/strong>
\nThe week after, I was just getting up and looking at the jersey hanging across from my bed. I think it\u2019s transformed me as an athlete, in terms of my self-belief; I don\u2019t put limitations on myself anymore. It\u2019s given me so much confidence, to be able to accept that I\u2019m a good athlete and a good cyclist. I think people believed it for me, but now I feel it myself.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s brought so much opportunity already; I\u2019ve been able to go to local primary schools, to chat with kids and encourage them to get on their bikes. Even at that bike show in London, now I have something to show, to prove that I\u2019m a good cyclist. I\u2019m going up to a UCI team, Plantar-Pura, so I\u2019ll get to do all of the Classics and race all over Europe. I\u2019ll have a DS, and a really professional setup\u2026 and a contract. Like, I feel like the past few years everyone\u2019s said, \u2018Imogen is a professional cyclist,\u2019 but I wasn\u2019t \u2013 this is the first year where I have a contract that is paid.<\/p>\n

And the road is calling once again?<\/strong>
\nI got home from London, and my friend had messaged to say one of the girls might be moving out of their apartment in Majorca; I booked flights 20 minutes later! It\u2019s funny, because it\u2019s coming full circle; it\u2019s the same apartment I lived in when I started cycling in 2018. Back then, it was high pressure and not that much fun; all track-track-track, and hard to enjoy. I was constantly competing with these friends that are so dear to me, but trying to take their spots on a team because there were only four spaces. I can\u2019t wait to go back there, surrounded by athletes who are so motivating for me, and I\u2019ll be there in a totally different place as a more mature athlete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI always had imposter syndrome, because I came to cycling so late. You set a limitation in your mind \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":3496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"global-categories":[73],"class_list":["post-3494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cycling-in-ireland","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cI don\u2019t put limitations on myself anymore\u201d \u2014 Irish Women's Elite Road Race Champion Imogen Cotter - \u0160koda We Love Cycling - Ireland<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/ie\/2021\/11\/17\/i-dont-put-limitations-on-myself-anymore-irish-womens-elite-road-race-champion-imogen-cotter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cI don\u2019t put limitations on myself anymore\u201d \u2014 Irish Women's Elite Road Race Champion Imogen Cotter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cI always had imposter syndrome, because I came to cycling so late. 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