I’ve broken my collarbone three times within the space of 12 months. I’ve also broken my hand. As professional cyclists, we put in hours and hours of hard work but so do many amateur riders, so it’s always disappointing to have an injury. For professionals, injuries affect you differently depending on how bad it is and especially what time of year it is.

For example, the three collarbone breaks were hard for me because I was just turning professional so it was a very disruptive year in terms of trying to make an impact. When I broke it for the first time, it happened in October, so it’s not so bad because you can afford to take a proper break for it to heal. I broke it a second time months later in February and it was harder to deal with because it was right as my first season in Europe was about to begin and all of a sudden your goals have to change.

Taking time to recover

What seems to be a trend in professional cycling and major sports in general, is we don’t allow ourselves time to recover. The third time I broke the collarbone was after I had been selected to represent South Africa for the first time in the Commonwealth Games and the World Championships. The accident happened just before world champs. That was quite hard to deal with mentally. At the time, my mom said to me ‘I think you should just give up on this sport because you’re just ending up in hospital.’ The danger with not acknowledging that our bodies need time to heal is that you can do more damage. When I broke my hand, I thought to myself, ‘my legs are fine’, so I rode on the trainer and really pushed myself and didn’t realise that my body was under strain, working to heal my hand. I dug a hole for myself and compromised my immune system which resulted in me getting sick, which then delayed training.

Everything happens for a reason

I really believe in that. I was building myself up so much for the games and world champs and setting really high unrealistic expectations as a new professional. Potentially I could have gone there with these expectations and when I didn’t achieve them, it could have made me quit. I always try to look for the positives when the negatives happen.

Medical cover for South Africans riding overseas

It’s good to have proper medical cover in place if you’re going to ride your bike in Europe. I am lucky enough to be supported by Momentum and the cover is very good. South African companies are at a great level and I have been lucky to not have to use the cover recently but my husband, Carl, has been hospitalised and the cover was amazing. Travel insurance is a must too as accidents can happen very quickly.