[Source: EventScotland] Five-time UCI BMX and Track Cycling World Champion, Shanaze Reade, has been unveiled as the first in a series of ambassadors who will help drive forward the key policy drivers for the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow and across Scotland.
With a huge passion for mentoring disadvantaged children, Shanaze will use her role as the Championships’ ambassador to make sure children and young people feel part of this once in a lifetime event, while also delving into the barriers that prevent or discourage them from riding bikes more often.
Shanaze understands first-hand the struggle to make ends meet and the limits it can put on a young person, including being able to access something as simple as a bike, having experienced it herself growing up. When she first got into cycling at age 10, she had to rent a bike until her grandmother bought her one for Christmas from a local supermarket. It was on this low-cost bike that Shanaze won her first national title, showing her drive and determination to be the best.
She said: “I’m delighted and immensely honoured to be the first ambassador for the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships. It is going to be an amazing event, bringing together 13 individual cycling world championship disciplines into one mega event for the first time.
“For me, a bike represents freedom. It can open up so many possibilities and teach you so many vital life skills. I’m hugely passionate about helping young people and this role gives me a great opportunity to work with the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships team to share this message as well as understand the barriers they are facing when it comes to riding a bike.
“My single biggest ambition as an ambassador is to help to find opportunities for every single child in Scotland to access a bike so they too can experience the freedom it can bring to their lives.”
Shanaze’s role as brand ambassador complements her existing role as Co-opted member of the 2023 Cycling World Championships Ltd board.
Paul Bush OBE, Chair of the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, said: “Shanaze is already making an important contribution to this brand-new event in her role as Co-opted board member, sharing her knowledge and experience of competing at multiple world championships.
“To now have Shanaze as the first of our ambassadors is an outstanding endorsement of what we are aiming to achieve with this event, helping to accelerate key policy drivers around participation and health as well as transport, tourism, and the cycling industry.”
Taking place in Glasgow and across Scotland in August 2023, the UCI Cycling World Championships will be the biggest single cycling event in history, bringing together 13 existing individual World Championship cycling disciplines into one mega event, for the first time. After this first event in 2023, it will take place every four years in locations around the world.
The Championships is more than just an event. It will celebrate the unique power of the bike and all it can bring to our everyday lives, whether it’s physical and mental health benefits, easing congestion on the road to help the environment, or simply making it easier for people to get around.
The 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships is being delivered in a collaboration between cycling world governing body the UCI, Scottish Government, Glasgow Life, UK Sport, British Cycling and VisitScotland with its EventScotland team. The partnership aims to create a blueprint for future editions by ensuring the inaugural event is authentic, innovative and distinctive.
