When the World Championship road races roll into Glasgow in August, no one is going to feel more at home than Anna Shackley.
Shackley, the only Scottish rider in the Women’s WorldTour, comes from Milngavie, eight miles north of the finish in George Square in the heart of Glasgow.
“It's probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ride a World Championship on my home roads,” Shackley told Cyclingnews.
“It's funny imagining the whole peloton, all these different people coming to my home city. I'm proud to be from Glasgow, so I'm quite excited for it.”
The women’s route misses the SD Worx rider’s front door by just a couple of kilometres as it winds its way south from Loch Lomond. To her, this isn’t just a World Championship course to be conquered, and these are roads which hold memories.
“I think I could do the race with my eyes shut, I've been cycling on those roads for years,” she said.
“The climb that they go up in both the men’s and the women's race, anyone who lives around the Glasgow area always goes up that climb. It's called the Crow Road. Before I went to France and places like that on holidays with my parents, that was the biggest climb I'd ever gone up. It's around 15-20 minutes. When you look at it, you go: ‘Oh, that’s a huge mountain’ – especially when you're 10 years old.”
“When I was younger with my brother and my dad, I would never stop up the climb because my dad would just leave me,” she recalled. “I was always racing my brother as well, so it was never an option just to stop. I had to get to the top.”
However, a couple of months ago, Shackley’s dream of racing up the Crow Road and through Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park with a British jersey on her back was in jeopardy.
At the beginning of the season, Shackley adjusted her position on the bike, which flared up a knee injury after racing Classic Brugge-De Panne in March.
The injury caused Shackley to miss out on racing her planned spring schedule, which included the Ardennes Classics and La Vuelta Femenina. She feared that she would have to skip the Worlds too.
“When I was injured, I was like, ‘Oh, there's no way that I'm going to get selected,’” she said.
“It took quite a while to get rid of. I raced Volta Limburg [after De Panne], and it was pretty sore then. After that, I just couldn't really ride. I still kept on kind of training through the start of April. Thinking back, I probably should have just taken a break then, and then maybe I would have been better for May, but that was not the decision I made. I just kept training through it, and then it just got worse. You always see it with teammates who keep training through injury, and you tell them to stop, and then when you're in that position, you do the exact same thing.”
Shackley admitted that this injury was the most significant step back in her career so far. She was able to lean on the support of her team during a difficult few weeks and spent time at home during her recovery.
“Looking at the bigger picture, I'm still pretty young. It's pretty hard when you're in the midst of an injury to look into the future and think that you might actually be able to ride again,” Shackley explained.
“The team are really supportive. The girls have been sending me messages, and they have checked in all the time, which is really nice.”
“I went home back to Scotland because it's just a lot more quiet there. I live in Girona. The whole town is full of cyclists, and everyone's training and everyone's getting ready for races. You feel a bit left out when you're there, and you've not got much to do. It was really nice going home and spending time with my family because I hadn't seen them in a while.”
After weeks of recovery, Shackley was finally given the all-clear to get back into full training.
“My first ride where I didn't have any knee pain, I was nearly in tears when I got home because I was so happy,” she said.
Shackley returned to racing at the British National Championships in June, placing fifth and winning the under-23 title. She further proved her recovery at the Giro d’Italia Donne the following week as she finished 13th overall.
Before the injury, the 22-year-old had started her season with her best-ever general classification result in a Women’s WorldTour race.
Shackley navigated her way through the echelons of the desert and up the steep slopes of Jebel Hafeet to take fourth place overall at the UAE Tour in February.
Prior to her success in the UAE, Shackley had claimed two other WWT top-tens, but both had come while riding as a domestique for one of SD Worx’s more senior leaders. Being the GC team leader was a new experience for Shackley. She exceeded her own expectations despite some nerves.
“It was the first time in this team that I'd been the one going for the result. It was quite nerve-wracking. I was getting pretty nervous. But then I was quite pleased with how I did. I was very happy with the fourth overall - I was just quite surprised,” she said.
“The team is really good that they do give out chances. Obviously, we've got a really strong team with Demi [Vollering], Marlen [Reusser], Lorena [Wiebes] and Lotte [Kopecky] - some of the best in the world. It was really nice to have that opportunity, but it's scary too because the girls put in so much effort for you, especially that day [on Jebel Hafeet]; they had been looking after me for like 70% of the stage, and then the last 10K is just all up to me. You don't want to disappoint them.”
The team sees Shackley as a future GC leader, a rider who, in future years, may go on to emulate the success they have been enjoying this season. This year’s UAE Tour was an important step along that journey and an opportunity for Shackley to prove herself.
Depending on how her recovery from injury goes, Shackley hopes to get more opportunities to lead the team later in the season.
However, the young climber is aware that she still has lots to work on before taking bigger results. Being a rookie amongst a squad of experienced winners, she’s always learning and feels as though she has grown in her tactical awareness in her time on the team.
“I've definitely learned a lot more in the past year-and-a-half,” Shackley explains. “Things like; when to go with an attack, what moves will be sticking, when to attack, who to go with - stuff like that. Also, especially with climbing races, it's more about knowing what suits me. Whether to stay with people and dig a little bit deeper or to do my own pace and conserve a little bit more. For me, what kills me is the sharp accelerations, then slowing down. But when it's one steady pace, I can maintain that and hold the wheel. I suppose it's just knowing myself a lot more.”
Growth and development
With the injury behind her, Shackley can now focus on building form and securing selection for the World Championships.
After placing 9th in the UCI Nations rankings at the time of the Worlds qualification deadline, Great Britain will compete with six riders in the women’s road race. Shackley is confident about the home nation’s chances thanks to the growth in depth of British talent.
“There's quite a lot of British women doing really well this year. Pfeiffer [Georgi] is going really well. I grew up racing against her, and it's really nice to see Pfeiffer do so well. I think she should be pretty good in the road race. And then also Anna Henderson. And Claire Steels has been climbing really well this year,” she said.
2023 is Shackley’s final opportunity to compete in the under-23 category at the World Championships. Although she would like to win the jersey in Glasgow, the British team is unlikely to target it.
“If we're racing for someone else, then obviously that kind of goes to the back of your mind. You don't really think about it cause you want to ride as a team for a different purpose. It's a bit strange having it in the same race as the elite. But it'd be pretty nice to win, especially on home roads,” she said.
Racing a World Championship in your home city is a one-off. It’s a thrill that 99% of riders will never get to encounter. The disappointment of the prospect of missing out on that chance must have been immense for Shackley.
With injury out the way, providing she gets selected, this proud Glaswegian can look forward to one of the most special experiences a cyclist can have.
