When Shanaze Reade speaks, people listen. At the British Cycling Awards dinner, where she is being inducted into the BC Hall of Fame, the 36-year-old’s voice pierces through the chatter and laughter of the crowd, and silence falls.
She’s not telling the usual story of getting into cycling through pushy parents, or because she was talent spotted in her school, or given a bike for her birthday or Christmas. Reade is talking about a childhood in which she suffered abuse, about having to climb over fences and use her pocket money to get into athletics classes which kickstarted her love for sport, about defying the odds to secure World Championship titles, then about hitting rock bottom through a period of alcoholism and how she’s now thriving after seven years sober. She is speaking on how the recognition from British Cycling feels like a full-circle moment in a sport that has both given and taken so much from her. This is who Reade is: brave, honest, open, and different.
A few minutes before her stage appearance, she’d shared snippets of her story with me during a short interview. The time we had together is nowhere near enough to get a true picture of the British woman, but it gave me an idea of the journey she’s been on throughout her career. The nine BMX and track world titles only make up a small part of Reade’s complex and endearing pathway in and out of elite sport.
“I've evolved so much from my cycling days, and I almost feel like it was like an alter ego of who I tried to be to fit into the world, to impress my parents, to get my dad's approval, which was never going to happen,” Reade explains. “I've had to hit rock bottom to find who I am. It's a beautiful, bittersweet thing [to be inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame], it's closing the chapter to who I was and who I'm becoming. It's just beautiful to receive it and to be recognised for my achievements as an athlete.”
Reade’s career ended abruptly in 2017 when British Cycling’s medical team deemed she would be unable to compete at the next Olympic Games due to having her shoulder operated on five times. The British woman speaks openly about the period after her retirement which was marked by a bout of alcoholism and weight gain, something she recovered from through the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. A testament to her determined character, in 2018 Reade made a return to competitive bike racing in the form of the team sprint competition on the track and became British national champion in the discipline. However, after rule changes meant she wouldn’t be able to go to the World Championships due to a lack of qualifying points, Reade subsequently retired from competition for a second time.
“The legacy I want to leave behind is way bigger than my sporting achievements,” Reade says. “I want to be the girl that stood at the cliffside with the wind blowing through her hair, not afraid to fall. I champion anybody to follow their dreams. The only thing between you and your goal is space, time and action. I have dyslexia, I never went to school, but I've just written a book. It talks about all the learning points through my life. I'm there to say – and not in a big-headed way – if I can do it, no matter the goal, no matter the journey, you're capable of achieving it.”
As Reade moves through the next chapter of her life, her aim remains the same: to inspire the next generation. It’s not lost on the British woman that there aren’t many people in cycling who have had similar upbringings to her, and this is something that she is passionate about changing. As always, Reade has big ideas, but she’s got a good track record of achieving things she puts her mind to.
“I'm about to launch something really special and really big. It's a mindset mentoring business. I'm not going to say too much more, because I want it to speak for itself, and already partnering with the YMCA and some big brands,” Reade reveals. “I want to give opportunities to those less privileged. Watch this space. It has been in the making for two years, and anything I've said I wanted to achieve before, the scoreboards say pretty good things. Let’s see what happens.”
