Monique van der Vorst, an athlete who was competing in a wheelchair until last year, has been signed by the Rabobank Women's Cycling Team.
Van der Vorst had been disabled since she was 13 after a routine ankle operation left her partly paralysed.
In 2008 she was completely paralysed from
the waist down when her spine was damaged in a car accident, but during her successful career in hand-cycling she took the world championship title three times.
The Dutchwoman was preparing for the 2012 Paralympic Games last year when she was hit by a bicycle while training in her wheelchair. The accident put the now 27-year-old into a long rehab period, during which she gradually recovered the use of her legs.
On November 20, last year, she started walking again.
