A TRIATHLETE who suffered serious injuries in a high speed cycling collision at Challenge Weymouth is recovering in hospital.

Mother-of-two Jeanette Morgan, 44, from Ivybridge, Devon, was involved in the crash on the B3390 in Affpuddle on Sunday afternoon as the triathletes took part in the cycling event.

She suffered a shattered shoulder, two broken ribs, a broken collarbone and a punctured lung in the collision, and was airlifted to Dorset County Hospital where she still remains, with her two daughters Jasmin and Isis at her bedside.

Speaking to the Echo, her partner John Ardron thanked the two other athletes who stopped to give Jeanette immediate medical treatment following the crash and a woman called Lucy, who stopped with Ms Morgan until paramedics arrived.

He also thanked members of the public for the ‘overwhelming’ messages of support the family has received.

Mr Ardron said: “All of the injuries are on her righthand side, where she hit the other cyclist, and we don’t know how long it will take her to recover.

“She has said that she will never do another event like this, which is a shame, because for her to be in an event like this was huge. She will never cycle again.”

To make matters worse for the family, they have been forced to cancel a holiday to Lanzarote which they were due to go on today because of Ms Morgan’s injuries.

“She is a very strong person with a strong personality so I’m sure she will be fine but we just do not know how long it will take,” Mr Ardron said.

“The thing that has really devastated her is we are meant to be going to Lanzarote today. There was meant to be nine of us going as I’m doing the Lanzarote Half Iron Man, and it was going to be very special. It has deflated us all.”

Mr Ardron also criticised the organisers of the event for not recovering Ms Morgan’s bike and not contacting the family to see how she is doing.

He said: “Nobody from Challenge Weymouth contacted us until Tuesday to see if she is okay. I went back to Weymouth on Sunday to try and get her bike back, and they said they hadn’t found it as it was put on a van and they didn’t know where the van was.

“They said someone would be in touch about the bike but they haven’t. I had to phone them on Monday and they said that when they find it they will send it to us in the post.”

Mr Ardron added that if anybody knew where the bike was to email him at johnbardron@gmail.com The other cyclist involved in the crash suffered minor injuries and went to hospital as a precaution.

 

  • ALAN Rose, race director, said he was ‘gutted’ the crash had happened in what was a relatively accident-free event.

Mr Rose said: “We wish Jeanette a speedy recovery and we are gutted it has happened.

“We don’t want anyone to have a negative experience. I am gutted for her and I desperately hope she has a good, speedy recovery.

“We take the safety of athletes very seriously. It’s the first thing we consider. The cycling course was designed to try and ensure the safety of the competitors but what we can’t legislate for is individual cyclists.

“In general the cyclists behaved very well.

“We penalise and disqualify cyclists who ride dangerously during the race and we emphasise at the pre-race meeting cyclists must take on responsibility and not ride dangerously.

“We will be having a safety advisory group shortly and we will look into if there is anything that needs improving and particularly this incident. It’s disappointing because the event was a huge success, there are elements that need improving but in essence we had an amazing event that needs a bit of tweaking.”

He added: “On the bike, we are still trying to track it down because when we heard two people had been in a collision, we sent a vehicle up to collect the bikes but when we got there the bikes had gone.

“We are still trying to track them down.”