A former pupil at Bedford Girls’ School is preparing to represent Team England in cycling at the forthcoming Commonwealth Games.
Sophie Lewis will compete as a track cyclist at the Lee Valley VeloPark in London, as part of a 35-person squad that also includes athletes taking part in para-track cycling, road cycling and mountain biking.
“Doesn’t get much better than on a home track with a home crowd, going back to where it all started for me,” she tweeted after news of her selection broke on 15 June, two days before her twentieth birthday.
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When Lewis left Bedford Girls’ School in 2020, her star was already on the rise. In the January of her final year, the upper sixth former claimed two gold medals as part of the British team at the Next Generation event in the Netherlands, a competition for junior riders from across Europe.
Since then, she has enjoyed similar success in the senior ranks. In April this year, she won gold at the national omnium championships in Derby, and a month later took bronze in the elimination race at the International Cycling Federation’s track nations cup in Canada.
Lewis and teammate, Maddie Leech, recently claimed silver at the national madison championships, second only to Neah Evans and the most successful female cyclist in Olympic history, Dame Laura Kenny.
Now, as part of a team comprising more than 400 athletes in total, she can look forward to competing at the track where she first began training and racing.
“To have the home crowd and my friends and family there supporting [will] just be so special and I don’t know if it [will] ever happen again,” she said.
