Elinor Barker 'relieved' to be resuming training after being hit by driver

The Olympic champion says she was fortunate to only miss a few days of training after a driver failed to stop at a roundabout

Elinor Barker (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Olympic champion Elinor Barker is back in training after being hit by a car.

A driver had failed to stop at a roundabout last week, colliding with the 26-year-old and then not stopping to check if she was okay. Thankfully, Barker suffered minor injuries and only missed a few days of training in the run-up to the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer.

"Feeling pretty relieved to be back to normal training today after getting hit by a car while out training last week. A driver didn’t stop at the roundabout (and didn’t even stop to see if I was ok) and went straight into me," Barker wrote on Instagram.

"I’m aware that I’m so lucky it wasn’t worse, minor damage done and I had less than a week out of training. But also feeling pretty unlucky that after almost five years of training for the Olympics, I have to share the road with somebody who could easily have ended it all because they couldn’t wait five seconds.

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"I’m probably preaching to the choir here, as I guess most of my followers will be cyclists and aware of all of this. But seriously, waiting two seconds to check for a cyclist won’t hurt you. Not waiting might hurt somebody else."

Barker won gold at Rio 2016 in the team pursuit with Katie Archibald, Laura Kenny and Joanna Rowsell-Shand, having also taken five world titles and gold at the Commonwealth Games in her career.

Despite the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Barker still had a fruitful year, placing first in the points race at the Track World Championships in March last year, as well as taking two golds in the elimination race and team pursuit at the European Track Championships in Bulgaria last November,in addition to a bronze in the madison.

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Hi. I'm Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor. I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.


Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).


I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.