Eurosport - Wed, 06 Aug 16:11:00 2008
There are not too many British world champions floating around so when somebody wins two world titles in different sports they deserve to be celebrated.
However, Crewe teenager Shanaze Reade is hardly a household name despite winning world gold in both BMX racing and track cycling in 2007.
That could very well change this year though; BMX will be competed at the Olympics for the first time, so along with the track racing, it will give Reade two chances to strike Olympic gold.
Certainly her best chance will come in her number one passion: BMX racing. She has been nothing short of a phenomenon since taking up the sport at the age of 10.
Already she has amassed five British, eight European and three world championships at different age groups, taking the senior elite women's race title in Victoria, Canada last year.
She also won the Olympic BMX test event in China and will be tough to stop in Beijing despite the fact that she will still be only 19 by the time the Games come along.
But her talent does not end on the BMX dirt tracks: after casually watching track cycling a couple of years ago she decided to take it up and just three months after her first training session in a velodrome she partnered Victoria Pendleton to gold in the team sprint at the world championships in Mallorca.
What is more, they completed that success in a world record time, and Reade's fifth place position in the individual 500m sprint showed she was competing right at the same level as the more experienced Pendleton.
Reade now splits her training between Leeds - where she does most of her BMX work - and Manchester, where she gets to practice her velodrome skills alongside the likes of Olympic winner Chris Hoy.
FULL TEAM:
BMX
Liam Phillips (Men)
Shanaze Reade (Women)
Mountain Bike:
Oliver Beckingsale
Liam Killeen
Road:
Jonny Bellis (Men's Road Race)
Steve Cummings (Men's Road Race & Individual Time Trial)
Roger Hammond (Men's Road Race)
Ben Swift (Men's Road Race)
Nicole Cooke (Women's Road Race)
Sharon Laws (Women's Road Race)
Emma Pooley (Women's Road Race)
Track:
Steven Burke (Team Pursuit)
Mark Cavendish (Madison)
Edward Clancy (Team Pursuit)
Ross Edgar (Team Sprint and Keirin)
Chris Hoy (Sprint, Team Sprint and Keirin)
Jason Kenny (Sprint and Team Sprint)
Paul Manning (Team Pursuit)
Chris Newton (Points Race)
Victoria Pendleton (Sprint)
Rebecca Romero (Individual Pursuit and Points Race)
Jamie Staff (Team Sprint)
Geraint Thomas (Team Pursuit)
Bradley Wiggins (Individual Pursuit, Team Pursuit and Madison)
Wendy Houvenaghel (Women's Individual Pursuit)
BEIJING MEDAL TARGET:6
Comment 1 - 3 of 3
Food prices up, fuel prices up the country in the @#$% and its bloody raining, but who gives a @#$% cos the Brits have just won their 7th cyling medals. Started cycling again myself after world championships and i owe my subsequent weight loss to this lot of bloody heroes.
Well done Nicole great gold, lets hope it's the first of many
The thing is...are track sprinters faster than road race sprinters?I was looking forward to Mark Cavendish taking gold after seeing his Tour performance,but I don't know the quality of the trackies.Philip G.Az.
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