Reade: World Champs are harder than Olympics

London 2012 BMX hope Shanaze Reade has said that the forthcoming World Championships in Birmingham will be harder to win than the summer's Olympic Games.

"A World Championship can sometimes mean more than an Olympic Games - you have the most people competing there," said Reade on the British Cycling website.

"At the Olympics you only have 16 women and 32 men and at the world championships it can be 60 plus women and a 100 plus men that can enter."

Reade, 23, will be hoping to reclaim the BMX world title at the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, on May 24-27. As well as rewarding the winning riders with a coveted rainbow jersey, the competition offers valuable qualification points for the London 2012 BMX event.

"Everyone is starting to taper and peak for the big event, the Olympics," said Reade. "You're going to see dreams achieved and dreams lost as well because for some it is the last chance to get into that important qualification spot for the Olympics so everyone is going to be battling for those points and we will be trying to get another world title." 

Reade crashed out of the final of the BMX event in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing after touching wheels with eventual gold medallist Anne-Caroline Chausson of France. She was elite world champion in 2007, 2008 and 2010.

The Crewe woman also found success as a sprinter on the track, partnering Victoria Pendleton to win two team sprint world titles in 2007 and 2008.

Reade's 2012 Olympic preparations are going well - she won the official test event held on the London 2012 BMX track in August.

Related links

Shanaze Reade: Rider Profile

Reade wins BMX Olympic test event