RECUPERATED cyclist Alexis Rhodes will dedicate her Commonwealth Games campaign to her late friend, Amy Gillett.
Rhodes, Gillett and four other Australian cyclists were training in eastern Germany last year when an out-of-control car struck them.
Gillett was killed, Rhodes was placed on life-support, and and three other cyclists were also taken to hospital.
Rhodes said today she would dedicate her performances at her first Commonwealth Games to Gillett, her former Australian Institute of Sport teammate.
"She is quite a big part of my life and, of course, I would like to dedicate pretty much a lot of what I am doing (in Melbourne) to her," Rhodes said.
"She is still there in my mind."
Rhodes, 21, suffered serious chest trauma and spinal injuries, including fractures in her thoracic spine, as well as seven broken bones in her back in the accident in Germany.
The cyclist from the Adelaide Hills township of Kersbrook was on life-support for several days after the July 18 crash.
"It's something that I thought I might have had taken away from me," Rhodes said of her Commonwealth Games selection.
"I got time to reflect on it and realise how much I actually do really love the sport.
"To come back and to be named in my first ever Commonwealth Games team, it has been pretty exciting but I guess now the real work starts.
"Up until now it has all been a bit of a dream, but the reality is starting to set in."
Rhodes, a noted aggressor on a bike, said the accident had irrevocably altered her outlook to the sport of cycling.
"I don't take it seriously, there is a lot more to life," she said at the cycling team's pre-Games training camp in Adelaide.
"And I think that helps me in quite a few ways, but I have actually become a better bike rider for it.
"If I have a bad day, I just put it down to a bad day.
"I don't start thinking about it and wondering 'maybe I have done this wrong or what if I do this'.
"I just sort of put it down to a bad day and move on."
The third-year podiatry student will compete in the points race with best friend and Games roommate Kate Bates, and in the individual pursuit with a road race berth now unlikely.
"Specifically, I am more there as a team player," she said.
"I mean obviously the (points) medal goes to the individual person, but if I can help ... Kate Bates win gold in the points race, it has been a successful day for me as well.
"We are rooming together. Hopefully we will be able to get enough sleep before the ride.
"She has helped me out so much in the last couple of years, and especially in the last six months.
"She has been there pretty much every day for me, so for me to help her in the points will be really quite special for me."
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