Claudia Cretti starts long recovery from Giro Rosa crash after waking from coma

Claudia Cretti has started on her long road of recovery from her horror crash at this year's Giro Rosa after her mother has confirmed that she is awake.

The Valcar-PBM rider had to be airlifted to hospital after crashing at 90kph, leaving her in a critical condition. She was placed into a medically-induced coma after it was feared she would suffer from permanent brain damage due to the injuries that she received to her head.

Originally the doctors reported that she was in a "critical but stable neurological condition" but in a recent Facebook post her mother, Laura Bianchi, confirmed that she was awake and interacting.

"Claudia is moving very well and observes everything with curiosity. She's listening to audio messages. Looks at photos on her cellphone" she said. "Doctors say it's going well."

The Italian star will soon be moved to a rehabilitation centre that will be closer to her home. There's no set return date as the rider is still in the early days of her recovery but these are encouraging signs for someone who was initially feared to have been on the end of permanent brain damage.