When Adelaide Perr looks in the mirror, she sees a version of herself she wouldn’t have recognized seven months ago.

One side of her face is visibly scarred, her upper lip is displaced and she’s lost four teeth, with another three on the verge of falling out.

“It depends on where I’m at, how I’m feeling, before I look at myself,” said Perr, 28, “but there’s a lot of emotions that go with it. I know I’m lucky to be alive. I’m lucky it’s not worse.”

Every day, she relives the events of Oct. 18. Perr, a competitive cyclist living in Boulder, was biking north on U.S. 36 as part of her training for an upcoming race. She was heading downhill at 35 mph when she noticed a car in front of her had stopped, for no apparent reason, in the intersection of U.S. 36 and Hygiene Road south of Lyons.

She braked so hard her hands were bruised purple for days. Her back tire’s skid marks were more than 50 feet long. But she couldn’t stop, and instead flew through a window of the stopped car.

One side of Perr’s face quite literally peeled off, her jaw detached and her tongue was sliced in two. She was so beyond recognition that when her boyfriend — and now husband — pulled up to the scene, the first officer he met couldn’t even describe what the victim looked like.

On Thursday, the driver, Russell Rosh, 53, of Longmont, was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine, among other smaller penalties.

Perr is home, back at work and getting back into a cycling rhythm. But her path to recovery isn’t close to finished.

“I’ll need several more facial reconstruction and scar-removal surgeries,” she said. “And I was fed through my stomach at the hospital, so I have massive scars from that and from the way it healed, and I’ll need another surgery as well.

“So I’ve got all this left to do, but, at the same time, I’m emotionally traumatized enough that I’m not ready to go through with some of those surgeries yet.”

Rosh was charged with misdemeanor careless driving resulting in injury.

“I can’t express how sorry I am that this all happened,” he told the judge at sentencing, fighting back tears. “The consequences (Adelaide) experienced due to my mistake … . I know it was my accident that caused all of this.”

While Rosh openly admits to a delinquent past that included a slew of major traffic infractions that have earned him four license revocations, he describes his current self as reformed. He hadn’t been cited for anything major driving infractions since 2004 and credits his marriage with stabilizing his life.

Rosh said he’s never gotten the chance to formally apologize to Perr.

In court Thursday, he wept with remorse.

“I would give anything to take all this back, but I know I can’t,” he said. “I pray every day and I think of (Adelaide) every day. Every time I smile, I wonder if she is smiling as well, or if she can.”

Perr wasn’t in court Thursday, primarily because she’d prefer not to be near Rosh. She is disappointed, however, that he couldn’t have his license revoked again, based on the nature of his charge.

“At what point does somebody not have the privilege of driving?” she said. “It’s a public safety concern. It’s not a cyclist-versus-cars issue, although a lot of people treat it that way. It’s about safety of distracted drivers. And it’s about the limitations of the system.”

At the time of the accident, Rosh wasn’t intoxicated or using his phone.

“These cases, they’re horrendous. No one comes out OK,” Judge John Stavely said.

He reviewed several gruesome photos of Perr’s injuries prior the hearing and said he was moved to tears.

“It’s one of the most difficult parts about this job,” he said. “I just wish I had the ability to rewind the clock.”

Alex Burness: 303-473-1389, burnessa@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/alex_burness