Shanaze Reade

Shanaze Danielle Reade (born 23 September 1988 in Crewe, Cheshire, United Kingdom) is a British former 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 is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Irish mother.

Reade was primarily raised by her grandparents after her mother gave birth to her at the age of 17.

She has credited her grandfather with giving her the self-confidence to achieve success in her cycling career.

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 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.

In 2005, she raced the National series with the men all year, despite being only 17 years old.

She commented on racing against men in a Descent World interview:

"I am usually always top 3 when racing the guys. I have been racing them now for 2 years and I was almost the National Champion last year though had to settle for the No 2 spot. The boys in BMX are all cool, some spit their dummies out but I just let them get on with it! It's really quite fun to watch when I kick their booties.."

Reade fractured her knee two weeks before the UCI World Championships in July 2005 at a national event in England.

She raced the World Championships with her knee wrapped up and on pain killers but crashed in the quarter-finals.

Known for her power, she developed her strength racing against boys and older amateurs, including men up to the present time.

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, 1.72 metres tall and 76 kg.

In June 2006, Reade broke a metatarsal bone in practice.

Her first race back was the 2006 European Championships where she competed only in the last two race events before the final Event.

The cast came off four days before the European Championships Final Event.

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 started track racing on 24 February 2007, her first ever competition on the velodrome was in the Manchester round of the 2006–2007 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics.

She took second place with Anna Blyth in the Team Sprint in a time of 34.294 seconds.

The Gold Medal-winning Dutch team of Yvonne Hijgenaar and Willy Kanis' time was 33.966 seconds.

Like Reade, Kanis is also a champion BMX racer.

Reade and Blyth's qualifying time was the fastest of the event at 33.802 seconds.

In the final round, the Dutch team made a false start, however, Reade didn't notice the call back to the start and completed a lap at full sprint.

In a post race interview, Reade said:

"'...The first run in the final (the false start) definitely took a lot out of me because I got halfway down the back straight the second time and my legs were burning bad. I could never have dreamed I'd come away with a Silver medal in my first World Cup though.'"

A month later, on 29 March, 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.

Their winning time was 33.631 seconds.

Reade was a last minute replacement for Anna Blyth, Reade's partner at her first track racing event a month prior.

This success in Velodrome racing follows the example of the former professional BMX racer, Jamie Staff, who had a successful career both in Velodrome track racing and BMX racing.