Sharon Laws’ Determination Pays Off
Posted August 4, 2008
By Larry Hickmott
British Cycling Olympic Home Page
One of Britain’s women riders in the Olympic Road Race on August 10 will be Sharon Laws, a new comer to the sport and to the British team this year. A second place, ironically in the Australian Road Race championship, saw Sharon become hot property for any country that could lay a claim to her and it was Britain’s gain when she arrived in April to compete for the Halfords Bikehut team. She quickly impressed on the road and Julian Winn, the Women’s RR Manager, is very complimentary of her talent on the road. So it was a huge shock when in June she crashed whilst filming for a BBC Olympic special and broke her ankle.
Sharon, understandably was broken hearted but the British team saw to it that she was looked after by the very best and at the start of the Olympic Holding Camp in Newport (Wales), Sharon had her first ‘race’, a local 10 mile time trial and did 22 minutes despite taking a wrong turn. “It was good to get out and do some proper training on the road” she told British Cycling afterwards. “I think I can tell I haven’t done much on the road because I felt much more eager when I got back on the road.” A few days later she completed a very hilly Sportive and is now in Beijing and preparing for the road races which will be the opening events at the Olympics.
Sharon was born in Kenya and lived there until she was six and then grew up in the UK (Bourton-on-the-Water) where she went to school. She then spent a year in Australia during a gap year and then went to university (University College London and Nottingham University). Like her teammate Emma Pooley, Sharon is well educated with a masters degree and that has helped her in her work around the world. Trips of two and half years followed her academic career to Uganda and Zimbabwe, South Africa, the UK and then Australia. Her work is in conservation, working with non government organisations and has included stints working at Kew Gardens as well as the Department of International Development, part of the United Nations.
Sharon starts her first race, a 10 mile time trial in Abergavenny a few weeks ago. With her is Jess Allen.
Asked how among all that, she found the ambition to be a full time cyclist, Sharon explained “It has always been in the back of my mind as I have always been very passionate about it. I started adventure racing in 2001 on a mountain bike as I was always much stronger on the bike. I then entered the Australian nationals and finished second so I thought perhaps there was a chance I could get more involved in this and so I sent an email to Dave Brailsford and asked ‘does that result mean anything’. Shane Sutton’s brother (Gary) was also watching. It was GB who phoned my coach and offered me a season riding for Halfords Bikehut and as you only live once, I thought I may as well and see how it pans out.”
Before she did the Australian Nationals, Sharon had only really done one preparation race before that and so her lack of racing pre-Olympics does not bother her at all as she has still been able to work very hard on a turbo and then on the road. Quizzed on her Olympic ambitions prior to this year, Sharon explained that “I grew up when Steven Cram and Steve Ovett were racing and I had dreams then of doing the Olympics. The funniest thing for me was when it was announced that the Olympics would be in London in 2012 I sent a text to my mum she could come and watch me and she sent one back, ‘what the hell do you think you’ll be doing at the Olympics-- you’ll be 38 then!”
No doubt her mum will be booking her tickets now!
Talking about her season up until the accident that put it on hold, Sharon told us it went very well. “The training I had been doing was very different and it was phenomenal to see the change in my results and performances. I had always ridden as much possible and I think I have always been running on empty. I got to a stage this year when I was thinking everything was perhaps going too well as I was having a lot of fun and enjoying it. And then I was doing some filming with the BBC and that was when the accident happened.”
“It was a really big blow and I really thought my Olympic dreams were over. Even in Australia before I came here I thought things would go well and get taken away at the last minute and so I was convinced that was the end and I wasn’t going to get to go.”
Sharon however is right now in Beijing and that is down to the work her GB coach Julian Winn, the GB Team with the help of the EIS staff and Sharon herself. “They have been phenomenal” she told us. “I am a very determined person but without people around me being so positive, I think it would have been really difficult to make the Olympics."
"Julian was fantastic and I think he had spoken to everyone on the planet. They rushed me in to have it fixed and I had a really good surgeon. Those who have looked at my ankle since have said it was a fantastic job. Then I went to Manchester to the EIS and everyone was like ‘It’s not a problem, I can get you on the start line in three days – we can strap you and it may hurt but you’ll be there’ and that gives you so much confidence.”
A lot of Sharon’s training was on the Turbo which like many of us who have done it, was not her preferred way of training. “I had never really done that much turbo work because I really don’t like it so I did find it quite hard mentally being able to focus. I went onto the turbo doing short but hard sessions and came off feeling like I had really trained."
"That was really good for my confidence.” These sessions were between 90 minutes and two hours. “I also did some sessions on the hypoxic mask, three treadmill sessions about an hour long. It allows you to change the gradient so I got some hill training in as well. I had done some of that in Newport with Julian before so that was not a new experience to me.”
In all, Sharon says she probably had two weeks off and the start of that came during an overload week which meant that when she returned to riding, albeit on a turbo or treadmill, the ‘numbers’ were really good and the power up. That alone boosted her morale. Despite the accident, Sharon was still selected for the Olympic team on the strength of the form she was showing in training and on her results during the year. On being selected, she told us “I am extremely excited about having been selected. To represent your country is an amazing opportunity and I don’t think that this honour is just for me -- it’s for every one who has supported me in Australia, South Africa and in the UK. I have had people contact me who I haven’t heard from for a long time who are so pleased for me and that’s an amazing experience.”
Her Strengths
As anyone who has read anything about the Olympic road race course will know, it’s hilly – very hilly. A reported 11 kilometres of climbing each lap and that thankfully suits Sharon. “Climbing is one of my strengths and I did a lot of hill work in Australia just because I love it. I would always train with the guys time trialling up these hills and it was good fun having that challenge. I still have a lot to learn about racing and for me, with the Olympic race having less riders in it than normal will be a good. I know however I will still need to be in the right place at the right time and be smart about it as well. The more I race, the more I will improve on that.”
And the heat? “Some people asked me about that today and I confidently said I am sure it won’t be too bad after having lived in South Africa and Australia but after having just spent an hour in the heat chamber, I think I’ll better rephrase that! It is the humidity that is going to be an issue and I am hoping the team have over done the heat chamber because if its like that for three and half hours, its going to be really tough!”
But as Sharon and the team know, if it is tough for her, it will be tough for everyone and the British rider is confident of doing well and then going on to hopefully be made part of the GB team full time. For now though, Beijing is the big focus and we wish her, and the GB team, lots of luck in the coming weeks.
Career highlights
2004: 1st Cape Epic mountain-bike race (SA) (8 day MTB International stage race, female pair)
2006: 5th TransAlps (8 day MTB International stage race, female pair)
2006: 6th Grand Raid Crist Alp, Switzerland (MTB 130km, elite women)
2007: 1st Tour of Bright (road, elite women)
This Season
1st, Cheshire Classic
1st, Olveston Road Race
RELATED LINKS
Nicole Cooke Interview in the Telegraph
Emma Pooley Interview on British Cycling