Shanaze Reade
Shanaze Danielle Reade is a professional British Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer and track cyclist whose prime competitive years began in 2002. She has won the UCI BMX World Championships three times.
Reade began racing in 1998 at the age of 10, at Tipkinder Park in Crewe. A local track operator named Bob Field, whose son also raced at the time, became her mentor. She was influenced by BMX professional racer, Jamie Staff, who was also from Crewe and raced at Reade’s home track before Reade’s career and during its early stages. She bought her first BMX bike for £1. She was previously a Track & Field enthusiast but apparently got bored with 100 metre sprint running and the Shot Put after five years in those sports before discovering BMX.
She won her first professional race in the Girls Pro at the American Bicycle Association (ABA) Winternationals in Phoenix, Arizona on 1 April 2006. She also won the following day. In 2006 she became British National No.1 in 19 & Over Elite Men after racing the National series with men all year, despite being only 17 at the time. She won the World Championships in Brazil in August 2006 despite an earlier injury to her foot.
Her BMX victories at junior level include three World, eight European and five British BMX championships. Reade is also a champion track racer, riding on Velodromes. In July 2007 she became the Women’s Senior UCI BMX World Champion and at the 2007 UCI Track World Championships, she won the gold in the women’s team sprint with Victoria Pendleton. It was only her second track race ever. Not only was she the first ever to win a track championship in her rookie year, she completed the feat after only six weeks of training. She had originally taken up the sport to keep her fit for BMX competition.
Reade went on to take first place in Team Sprint at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Palma de Mallorca along with Victoria Pendleton. It was also the first ever Women’s Team Sprint Gold Medal title in that event. At the 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Manchester, she again won the gold in the women’s team sprint with Pendleton. Reade was named one of the “Magnificent 7” by the Daily Mail in 2005, and on 20 November 2007 Reade was named The Sunday Times Young Sportswoman of the Year.
Source: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanaze_Reade
