In the space of 48 hours Lauren Dolan went from winning a world championship bronze cycling medal to sitting in a hospital bed with a broken collarbone, nerve damage and stitches in both elbows.

The former was down to the heroics of the GB mixed team trial sextet excelling themselves in the UCI Road Cycling event in Yorkshire. The latter, to the actions of a motorist believed to have carried out a 'punishment braking'.

Dolan was out on a four-hour endurance ride with her dad around her home roads back in Devon.

“We came down this coastal road - fairly busy but not too busy - and we were just riding along, my dad was sat behind me," she said. "He sits just off my wheel and out into the road a tiny bit because he likes riding there because he feels like he’s protecting me in some kind of way, no more than a few centimetres.

“This car came up behind us. I didn’t look over my shoulder or anything, but he was on the horn because he couldn’t pass because of oncoming traffic on the other side of the road.

“He then got the chance to pass and he passed with inches to spare on the handlebars and then pulled straight in.

“I was kind of like ‘oh god, that was really close’. I think my dad waved his arm to say ‘give us some room’, nothing rude or anything, just kind of like ‘what are you doing’ sort of thing.

“He (the driver) then got a few metres in front of me and then slammed his brakes really hard on - this was on a bit of a descent and we were going about 30 mph. So, I had literally metres to manoeuvre and I tried to manoeuver around the outside of the car into the middle of the road because he pulled in so hard left that he was on the curb and I had no room to go down the side of him.

“So, I pulled out to the right hand side of him and there was a traffic island in the middle of the road. My front wheel missed the traffic island but my back wheel clipped the back of the island and sent me flying and I nearly hit his car. He sped off."

The list of injuries included a fractured collarbone which separated from her shoulder, soft tissue, ligament and tendon damage to her shoulder and neck, nerve damage from her hip to her spine, and stitches in both elbows.

One of her elbows had initially been fitted with a metal plate after she was hit by a race motorbike during the Tour de Bretagne in June this year.

And after her post-world championships crash, the 20-year-old now concedes she is perhaps the unluckiest person in the world.

“I get told it a lot (that I’m the unluckiest person in the world). I’ve learnt to deal with a lot," she said.

“I think I’m just one of those people that every time I get knocked down it just makes me stronger. I do lose confidence and doubt myself a lot. But I’m fortunate to have a really good network around me, always there to support me - my dad, my coach."

Dolan's resolve is admirable. She was immediately driven to Wigan to see a collarbone specialist and had an operation the next day.

Yet despite her condition, the two-wheeled prospect was eager to instantly get back training.

“The next day I was actually in the gym walking on the treadmill," she said, masking the absurdity with a small chuckle.

“I’m in a sling for four weeks minimum. As soon as the wounds heal, I’ll be able to jump on the turbo and let go really. But I’m airing on the side of caution. It’s off-season now. It’s not too much of a rush to get back into racing."

The Yorkshire victory took something of a back seat as a result of the crash, but the race itself wasn't without incident.

With the women and men racing as separate trios, Dolan and her two teammates set off, only for disaster to strike just minutes into their ride.

“Three kilometres into the ride my arm rest snapped," she said.

“We managed to adapt to that. Joss [Lowden] ended up doing my role and I ended up doing Joss’ role. So, I emptied the tank earlier on into the ride and left the other two to go to the line.

“My main aim was to get the girls through the technical descent and give it as much as I had so they could float through and give it their all to the finish.

“In the end it worked really well, just not how we planned it. But we adapted really well.”

The Brits -  Dolan, John Archibald, Dan Bigham, Harry Tanfield, Anna Henderson and Lowden - finished just 51 seconds down on winners The Netherlands and 29 seconds down on second place Germany.

It was a result that shocked most, but Dolan revelled at being an underdog.

“We were quietly confident," she said.

“We didn’t feel any pressure to get a result because on paper we shouldn’t really have come third.

“You’ve got all these world tour riders on big pro contracts and then there’s the GB team where you’ve got the lads from Derby - who are very talented - and then myself, Joss and Anna who are just making our marks on the international scene."

Next year could be the biggest of the youngster's career so far as she sets her sights on the Olympic Games.

“I’d absolutely love to be in the Tokyo team," added Dolan.

"I think I could do it and that is the driving force at the minute - to be in that Tokyo road squad.

“The course suits me. It’s a hard, hilly course. So, making that Tokyo team would be the absolute dream. And then progressing onto the world tour really.

“Providing I can stay on my bike I think it is do-able!”