Wendy Houvenaghel

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Wendy Houvenaghel

At the world championships, 2008
Personal information
Full name	Wendy Louise Houvenaghel
Date of birth	27 November 1974 (1974-11-27) (age 34)
Country	United Kingdom
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[1]
Weight	60 kg (130 lb; 9.4 st)[1]
Team information
Current team	Team Halfords Bikehut
Discipline	Track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Pursuit / Time-trialist
Amateur team(s)1
Camel Valley Cycling
Professional team(s)1
2005–2007 2008–	Science in Sport.com Team Halfords Bikehut[2]
Major wins
National 3 km Pursuit Champion (2005, 2007) UCI World Track Cup 3 km Pursuit (2006, 2007) National Time Trial Champion (2007) UCI World Track Championships Team Pursuit (2008,2009)
Medal record Competitor for  Great Britain Track cycling Olympic Games Silver 2008 Beijing Individual pursuit World Championships Gold 2008 Manchester Team Pursuit Gold 2009 Pruszków Team Pursuit Silver 2009 Pruszków Individual Pursuit
Infobox last updated on:
30 March 2008 1 Team names given are those prevailing at time of rider beginning association with that team.

Wendy Louise Houvenaghel (born Wendy Louise McClean, 27 November 1974) is a British racing cyclist from Upperlands, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland,^[3] riding on both the road and track, but specialising in the latter. She has represented the United Kingdom in various World Cycling Championships, most notably winning a gold medal in the team pursuit at the 2008 Track World Championships. She has also won various British national competitions and represented England at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. On the road, she rides under the sponsorship of Team Halfords Bikehut. Houvenaghel is based in Cornwall.^[3]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Palmarès 3 References

[edit] Early life

She grew up in Upperlands near Maghera. She went to Ampertaine County Primary School in Upperlands and Rainey Endowed Grammar School in Magherafelt.At the Rainey she was a very bright student who was interested in cross country most notably not cycling. She studied Dentistry at the University of Dundee where she met her husband. After qualifying, she became a dentist in the Royal Air Force, commissioned as a flight lieutenant on a short service commission on 6 August 1998,^[4] and promoted to squadron leader on 6 August 2003,^[5] and transferred to the RAF Reserve a year later.^[6] During her RAF career she was based at RAF St Mawgan near Newquay in Cornwall.^[7] Having not ridden a bike since leaving school in 1993,^[8] she took up cycling in 2002, aged 27, to accompany her husband Ian. She also rode for the RAF Cycling team. She now lives in Bodmin. In August 2006, with the end of the short service commission, she became a full-time track cyclist.

[edit] Career

She first took part in a cycle road race in September 2002, being selected for the GB squad in 2003. Houvenaghel rose to fame at a relatively late stage, first competing on the world stage in 2005, aged 31. Prior to this, she had competed in time trials within the UK for the amateur club Camel Valley. She won the British National Circuit Time Trial series in 2003 ^[9] and won all British time-trials that she competed in during 2005. ^[10] During this year she began competing on the track at the 3 km pursuit. She was victorious in this event at the British National Track Championships, in her first ever track race ^[10] and went on to compete in the UCI Track World Cup, which she duly won.^[11]

Focusing on the track, she retained her World Track Cup title in 2006 and gained a second place in the British National Time Trial Championships on the road. She also represented the UK for the first time at the track World Championships, and competed for England on both the track and the road at the Commonwealth Games after being turned down for the Northern Ireland team by the Northern Ireland Cycling Federation, ^[11] with her best finish being a 5th in the track pursuit at the World Championship. Following a victory in the pursuit at the 2007 British National Track Championships, she went one better to finish fourth in the 2007 World Championships,^[12] as well as winning the national time-trial title for the first time.^[13]

Prior to 2008 Houvenaghel declared that her focus would be on the Track World Championships and 2008 Olympic Games.^[14] In the Track World Championships in Manchester she was a part of the gold medal winning team pursuit, ensuring participation at the Olympics.^[15] She missed out, however, on a medal in the individual pursuit, again finishing fourth.^[16] On 16 August 2008 Houvenagel qualified for the final of the Women's 3000m pursuit at the Beijing Olympics and went on to win the Silver medal, losing out on the gold to her team mate Rebecca Romero by 2 seconds. She won silver again in the same event at the 2009 Track World Championships, losing the final by over 2 seconds to Alison Shanks after beating her in the qualifying heats.^[17] Houvenaghal now rides for Team Halfords Bikehut.

[edit] Palmarès

[edit] References

Persondata
NAME	Houvenaghel, Wendy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION
DATE OF BIRTH	1974-11-27
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH