Shelley Olds (born September 30, 1980)[1] is an American former professional racing cyclist.
Career
Olds was born and raised in Groton, Massachusetts. She studied health and human performance at Roanoke College in Virginia, and was captain of their women's soccer team. A star on the soccer pitch, Olds was a two-time NSCAA All-South Region selection, four-time All-ODAC selection and the 2002 ODAC Player of the Year. She was inducted into the Roanoke Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016.[2]
After college, she moved to California and was introduced to cycling by Rob Evans, whom she later married. She started racing locally on the road, quickly moving up in the ranks and winning the Road Cycling State Championships. She then joined Peanut Butter & Co.TWENTY12 team,[3] won the Track National Scratch Race Championships in 2008 and 2009 and then won the National Criterium Championships in 2010 and 2011. She began racing internationally soon after and earned podium results in the Tour of New Zealand, Trofeo Costa Etrusca Iii in Italy, Drentse 8 Van Dwingeloo in Netherlands, as well as Liberty Classic road race in Philadelphia.[1][4] She registered with the UCI under her married name of Shelley Evans for the 2010 season,[5][6] but reverted to her maiden name in later seasons.
In 2012, Olds signed with Dutch team AA Drink–leontien.nl and won the Tour of Chongming Island World Cup[7] to earn a qualifying spot on the US National team for the Road race at the London Olympics. At the Olympics, she was one of the four riders in the winning breakaway group that split from the peloton with 50 kilometres (31 miles) to go, but suffered a puncture 29 kilometres (18 miles) later. After a tire change, she caught back up to the peloton and finished in 7th place.[8]
Olds carried on with her professional racing career with multiple UCI Women teams, and continued her ascent to become one of the top sprinters in the world. She took multiple Sprinters' jerseys in races across Italy, Norway and China. Back in North America, she won the Winston-Salem Cycling Classic in North Carolina, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Gatineau in Quebec, Canada, and the White Spot/Delta road race in British Columbia, Canada.
In 2015, while riding for the Italian Alé–Cipollini team, Olds won the inaugural edition of La Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta[9] in a bunch sprint beating out top sprinters in the world at the time. She moved back to the United States in 2016 to join Cylance Pro Cycling team and started the year with a 2nd place finish in the Women's Down Under Tour in Australia, but had to retire in March of that year after crashing and suffering from head injuries in back to back races in Europe.[10]
