A driver has denied injuring cyclist Lauren Dolan two days after she won a medal at the Yorkshire 2019 World Championships.
Dolan was training in Devon on September 24 last year when she was involved in a crash with driver Robert Newton that left her with a broken collarbone.
Newton, 73, of New Road, Teignmouth, has denied causing the crash and will stand trial accused of driving without due care and attention, failing to stop at the scene of a crash and failing to report the incident, Devon Live reports.
The driver allegedly slammed on his brakes after an overtaking manoeuvre, which caused Dolan to hit a traffic island, sending her flying over the handlebars and resulting in a broken collarbone.
Dolan was training with her father in Teignmouth when the crash with Newton, who was driving a grey Dihatsu, happened.
She had only just returned home from the World Championships in Yorkshire, where the 20-year-old had won a bronze medal during the inaugural mixed relay team time trial event.
Dolan was taken to hospital after the crash, where she discovered she had suffered a broken collarbone and “substantial” soft tissue damage, later undergoing surgery for the break.
After the crash, she told the BBC: “I had the best feeling so far in my cycling career and 48 hours later I’m lying in hospital, devastated.
“I’ve not been very fortunate this year. It’s a bit of a kick in the teeth but it certainly won’t stop me for next year.”
Newton appeared at Newton Abbot Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday (February 12) and will return to court on March 30.
The past season has been marred with injury for multi-disciplined rider Dolan who competes for Bizkaia-Durango on the road.
Dolan returned to competition in late August, following an elbow fracture sustained in a collision with a motorbike at the Tour de Bretagne Féminin.
She crossed the line ninth in her first race back, and pinned a number on only three times before the World Championships.
Images of Dolan spread far and wide back in 2017, when she completed the junior women’s time trial at the World Championships in Bergen, despite crashing and sustaining a deep laceration to her leg.
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Despite the painful looking cut, Dolan powered around the 16.1 kilometre course, finishing just 2 minutes 24 seconds down on eventual winner, Elena Pirrone (Italy).
The then teenager spent her eighteenth birthday in a Norwegian hospital after a two-hour surgery.
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