Sian started cycling at the age of 15 when her dad convinced her to have a go at cyclocross on a bike he’d purchased for the children in the local club. Like most first attempts, it certainly wasn’t an instant success! Sian went off course and came last, but was the only girl so won some prize money. This was more than enough to convince her to have another go and she was back on the grid the week after with much more success. Sian’s competitive edge soon took over and she’s never looked back.
Sian spent years helping at the local cycling club, coaching younger children as well as older teenagers as they get into racing; helping with riding technique, skills and tactics as well as continuing to race herself increasingly seriously. During this time completing the British cycling coaching badges.
In her own racing career- after a few years of finding her feet – Sian started to see real improvements in her first year out of juniors, being coached by our very own Tom Neale way before he was a Ride Revolution coach. With his experience at the highest levels of racing, Sian went on to win three rounds of the National Team Series and achieve a top 10 in the National Road Series within a year. For the 2017 season, Sian joined Team OnForm, achieving five top 10’s in the National Road Series and finishing 8th overall. She also tasted success in Belgium, supported by the Dave Rayner Fund, experiencing kermesse racing on the continent and learning a lot about what it takes to compete at the highest level.
Sian eventually took a step back from racing after beginning full time work. By her own admissions struggling to balance training at the same level as before with being on her feet all day working in a bike shop. Lessons learnt and a new perspective gained, she instead turned her attention to using the knowledge gained from her own racing and the coaching she’d received in previous years to begin to coach some of the local girls from the club she started out with, Bourne Wheelers. She has continued to coach ever since, specialising in coaching young riders and females of all ages, but is equally as at home coaching male riders. She is currently the main coach for the 3rd and 4th category section of our Race Team. She really understands all the elements involved in racing outside of just fitness; tactics, skills, reading a race, nutrition to name a few. She is as comfortable coaching up and coming aspiring pro’s as she is helping the local level hobby cyclist to get more out of their riding.
Sian’s patient and approachable manner and appreciation of balancing training and racing around a busy life schedule, as well as her experience with a wide range of disciplines (Road, cyclocross, TTs, track and MTB), lead to us adding her to our coaching roster in 2021.
A change of circumstance in 2023 has lead to Sian becoming a full time coach for us, also allowing her to up her commitment to racing once again. She is loving the work life balance of coaching and riding full time, and both elements are reaping the benefits!
She is available to riders of all ages and will cover our starter and racing packages.