The pair were among a group of 70 riders travelling to Victoria's Upper Murray region for a weekend trip when their journey was cut short after they struck a damaged section of Murray River Road in Walwa.
The crash almost proved fatal,A with her friend left in a coma and more than $10,000 damage caused to their vintage motorcycles.
"I got some of the worst of them (potholes)," Ms van der Meent told AAP.
"I just remember thinking 'hang on for dear life' and then it just came all undone and I came down sideways and I went sliding.
"I went sliding about 60 metres up the road with the bike across the opposite lane, if there was an oncoming car, I would have died."
The road had plagued residents for years, with only minor fixes by the state government until the incident appeared to prompt major repairs.
Premier Jacinta Allan on Monday announced the May 5 Victorian budget would allocate $1.04 billion for road maintenance in 2026/27, up from $976 million in 2025/26.
The funding will be spent on arterial roads, bridges and traffic lights, emergency roadworks, roadsides, signs and graffiti removal.
Regional roads will receive 70 per cent, proportionate to their share of the state network.
Extreme weather and flooding events in 2022, 2023 and 2024 created "real challenges" for Victorian roads, particularly in regional areas, Ms Allan said.
"I know that things like potholes are really frustrating for motorists, as someone who drives on our regional road network every single day," she told reporters.
As Ms van der Meent gets back on her bike and her friend continues to recover, she believes many regional roads are still not up to scratch.
"There's a running joke that NSW roads are so much better than Victoria because (they) are just horrific," she said.
While the Rural Councils Victoria hailed the funding as a good first step, the Victorian Farmers Federation likened it to "putting a band-aid on a broken leg".
Royal Automobile Club of Victoria policy head James Williams agreed the "normal" maintenance program spend would not address a long-standing backlog of deteriorating regional roads.
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson and other Victorian Liberals have recently filmed social media videos mowing an overgrown nature strip and filling potholes.
The election-year funding was a "billion-dollar admission" of failure and neglect by the state Labor government, Ms Wilson said.
"This didn't happen overnight," she said.
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