SHARON HEAP

The World Champion on the Gold Coast

Sharon Heap is one of our most consistently decorated riders competing at a national level in Australia. Her palmares includes more than 30 national titles in cross-country, marathon and cyclocross, and she recently added a world champion jersey to her piles of green and gold.

So who is Sharon Heap? She’s a punk rocker, a mother, motorider and shredder of all things bike. Based on the Gold Coast, she got into riding when she was 35 - 20 years ago - because her partner Les started riding to get fit for motorbike racing. Before then she was busy keeping her Mohawk looking good, while listening to three-chord specialist punk bands, and also having children.

“I always liked to be slightly different,” Heap says of her punk past. “And I think that’s where the shiny knicks came into it.” Heap was famous for her home-made sequined lycra in the early days of mountain bike racing in Queensland. “I thought ‘It’s a bit of comedy, a bit of brightness, in a situation where everyone is so serious.’ I am good at making my own clothes so it was cheaper than buying kit.”

Because partner Les was giving the moto racing scene a crack, Heap jumped right in and had a go too. “I got a motorbike when I was 30,” she says. “And started trail riding with the boys. I am not a sit-at-home person - I like to get out and have a go. We took the kids on camping trips and they had little bikes, then that progressed to trail bike racing. That lead to really good skills on a motorbike, then someone suggested I would be a really good downhiller so I thought, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll give that a try’. Everyone used the same bike and gave everything a try: downhill, cross country and trials.”

Heap adds: “The scene was pretty friendly, but full on. The numbers were actually pretty good back then, then it died off for a few years then came back better. My first bike was a hand- me-down hardtail from a friend, a secondhand one I got for $200, just a ‘have a go’ bike. And as for the trails, they weren’t as groomed. They were more natural, more like animal trails they fixed up. A lot of very narrow singletracks, it was just a case of make your way down the downhill trail as best you can.”

Heap is lucky enough to have some of the most natural remaining trails in Australia right on her doorstep, as she rides several times a week at Nerang forest - the location for the 2018 Commonwealth Games cross-country course. “Nerang is cool because it is so diverse,” she explains. “From extremely easy, to stupid-hard and old school. There are so many trails in Queensland for everyone from the seasoned racer to the everyday punter with options in popular holiday destinations. I am excited for the Commonwealth Games right here in our backyard.”

As for her training on the coast, she says: “I train pretty much every day of the week, and with younger people; I am always chasing them. I do a lot of road riding around the Gold Coast hinterland, so I know I have so much endurance with that and then you have to perfect it with short races and that’s where CX comes in. It’s one hour full on which is perfect for cross country racing.”

Heap went to the cross-country Masters World Championships in Vale di Sole in Italy in 2016 – and shocked even herself with her performance. “I thought I had come second in my group, which included the age group below me. I thought, ‘Well that’s pretty awesome’. But after I had finished they said, ‘No, you’ve come first’,” she explains. “It just didn’t connect for a while. I was like, ‘Is that true?’ I celebrated with the biggest bottle of champagne ever. I got so drunk!” Proof, if needed, that riding hard must be balanced with partying hard when appropriate.

Looking to the future, Heap adds: “My next aim is to maybe go back to Andorra and have a crack there. The woman I actually most feared didn’t turn up to my race. A woman called Gertrude from Norway. And I want to get a stripy jersey for cyclocross. Gertrude also races CX - I think I need to beat her.”

Heap has some advice for newer riders, saying: “Get out there and ride everyday if you can - you have to ride with faster people to get faster. If you want to go fast and put the effort in, you’ll get there. You just have to keep trying.”