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Great Britain BMX athlete Shanaze Reade says her desire to return to the top of the sport is her chief motivation as she prepares for the Santiago del Estero UCI BMX Supercross.
The three time elite world champion won at the opening Manchester round in April to continue her impressive form in 2013, which has guided her to number one in the UCI rankings.
In addition, victories in the UEC European Series and British BMX Series have seen the 24-year-old put an inspiring series of results together with Reade fuelled by the prospect of adding to her gowing tally.
“Every year everyone is stepping it up,” British Cycling Olympic Podium Programme rider Reade said. “I had to make sure I had to step up even more than the other girls as I want to be dominant in the sport of BMX again and that’s my driving force - not to be as good as the other girls but be even better than them.”
“It would be good to show that consistency, that it’s not just in Manchester but at other tracks. I’d be delighted to go for the overall Supercross win.”
Shanaze Reade
The competition in Argentina from 10-11 May is the second of four instalments in the UCI BMX Supercross calendar. Although Reade has individual rounds to her name the overall title in the series has eluded her, something she is keen to revise this year.
Wins in both the time trial Superfinal and Supercross race itself at the National BMX Centre mean Reade has 250 points, 75 clear of American Brooke Crain.
“My philosophy going into the race in Argentina is to try and repeat that again and that would give us quite a lot of points. I’ve never won the Supercross series,” said Reade, who was named alongside Liam Phillips in the Great Britain team.
“It’s early in the season but we’ve [Reade and teammate Liam Phillips] picked up quite a lot of points with the Superfinal win and then the race itself
“It would be good to show that consistency, that it’s not just in Manchester but at other tracks. I’d be delighted to go for the overall win.”
The Santiago del Estero track is new to the UCI BMX Supercross calendar, having been built in 2011. Coming just three weeks after Manchester, Reade opted to miss the third and fourth rounds of the European Series in the Czech Republic as well as the second and third rounds of the British BMX Series on the final weekend of April.
“It’s good and it’s kind of bad in away,” Reade said of the close proximity of the two events.
“I wouldn’t say it’s that much of a negative - you’ve still got that adrenaline and buzz off the back of the world cup, we had a successful week there.
“It’s been good to keep that form because you can hold on to it a lot easier with the space and time that we have been given.
“Times are pretty close if not personal bests throughout the sessions so I’m pretty happy about that.”
Unlike Manchester, the venue in Argentina is an outdoor track with the elements potentially posing challenges for the riders in addition to each other. Trips to Platt Fields Park BMX Track, an outdoor facility in Manchester, have been used to prepare as well as the team’s National BMX Centre training base.
“Every Supercross track generally has the same sort of first straights so that’s what we’ve trained for here and then we’ve done some outdoor preparation work at Platt Fields just for the wind element and the different surface element,” Reade explained.
“We’ve seen a video of the track but it’s hard in BMX to picture what it’s going to be like until you’re there yourself but so far looking at the pictures and a few videos we’ve seen the track looks really good.”
British Cycling will be reporting from the Santiago del Estero UCI BMX Supercross on Friday and Saturday.
