British champion Sally Bigham shows off her marathon stripes ©Sportograf
Four years ago Sally Bigham started riding a mountain-bike. As of around two weeks ago she is now a full-time professional cyclist with one of the world’s top mountain-bike teams. The Topeak-Ergon rider spoke to MarathonMTB.com about her path to the professional ranks and while she is surprised by the speed of her progression, her results would indicate that 2011 is going to be a very interesting year.
Bigham is a modest character. She has held the British marathon title since 2008 and in 2009 – her first with Topeak-Ergon – finished third in the UCI’s overall world marathon rankings. This year, she finished second overall. Most recently, she closed her season with a “surprise” victory at the season-ending Roc Marathon in Frejus, France.
“It wasn’t expected and it wasn’t even hoped for. Towards the end of the season I’ve just been feeling really tired. It’s been a long season; it started in March at the Cape Epic and since the [British] national marathon championships I’ve wound my training down and not really felt that strong,” Bigham said. “For me, Roc was all about being with the team at the end of the season and having some fun really. I didn’t know what shape I’d be in because I hadn’t been riding all that much, but I was pleased obviously.”
Her win at the Roc coincided with the start of a one-year sabbatical from her position as a senior lecturer at the University of Bournemouth. Incredibly, her growing list of world-class results since 2006 has largely been achieved while holding down her role at the University.
“I started with Topeak Ergon at the start of last year, but I was still working full-time at that point,” said Bigham. “In September last year I went to four-days-a-week, but I struggled still to get all my training in so in March this year I dropped back to three-days-a-week. I’m taking next year as a sabbatical from work.”
Bigham is in fact a Doctor of Psychology. Her research field is Autism and while she will now take more time to explore fields in a more physical sense, it is something to which she expects to return. For now however, her new career path will be the one she follows.
“I did my undergraduate degree, did my PhD and then did some post-Doc research posts and got a lectureship. So that was my original career path. I found cycling a few years ago and didn’t expect to be in the position I’m in now at all.”
Clipping in
Bigham admits that she didn’t use clipless pedals until two years ago. It means her results between 2006 and 2008 were achieved on flat pedals. Those results including second at the 2007 British marathon championships and victory at the Marin Dusk till Dawn 12-hour solo event.
“I did my first mountain-bike race in 2006, which was a 24-hour race. It was just a laugh with a friend. We thought, ‘we want a challenge, what shall we do?’. I was pretty hopeless on a bike to be honest. I was on flat pedals, had no idea about tyres or lights, and we just went there and had a bit of a giggle really,” she explained. “Afterwards I thought, ‘oh, maybe I can do better than what I’ve done there if I take it a bit more seriously’. I did another one in 2007 – still on flat pedals. Every year I’ve taken it more and more seriously.”
That path led her to the use of the ubiquitous shoe and pedal system, but while marathons have become her main event, her involvement in them grew out of her objectives in the long-form of enduro racing.
“In 2008 my whole goal was the Mountain Mayhem [24-hour solo] and I did a couple of marathons as part of my training. I ended up winning the British marathon championships which was a real surprise to me. “I thought, ‘ok, well marathon racing is a little bit more sensible than 24-hour racing perhaps.'”
Sensible has yielded results. In 2009, she finished third in the UCI’s marathon rankings, sharing the top-three spots with Esther Süss and Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa. 2010 marked an even greater progression. She finished second in the rankings thanks to her defence of her national title and victory at the Ischgl Ironbike.
This year has also seen Bigham make several forays into cross-country racing. The blue-ribband event in mountain-biking insofar as the UCI is concerned, the two-hour, short course races do carry a particular level of prestige. Given the step-down in ride time from 24-hour events to marathons, numerically at least, cross-country would appear the next step, but Bigham admits they do go a little against her nature.
“Marathons, for me, are what mountain-biking’s all about. I just love to ride. To cover big miles, see lots of things and go places. Cross-country isn’t really why I ride bikes,” she said. “People are saying to me I should to cross-country because perhaps I’d be good at it and I have given a few a go and I do now see why people enjoy them and why they’re fun.
“It’s kind of a challenge of getting around that course as quick as you can and making each lap smoother than the last; it is definitely a bit more technical than a marathon.”
It’s the latter element that is Bigham’s big goal for the next twelve months. While much of her endurance training has been carried out on a road bike in her native England, the chance to dedicate her time fully to her sport will see her spend more time off-road developing her technical skills.
She expects to spend a large proportion of her season living in Italy, where she’ll be close to sites of some of her favourite races. “I just absolutely love being in the mountains,” she said. “Races like those in the Dolimites, Villabassa, Dolimite Superbike; I absolutely love that race because it’s in those mountains.”
Another race that has captured her imagination recently is South Africa’s Cape Epic. She finished third in the mixed pairs with Nico Pfitzenmaier. “A real thrill this year was doing the Cape Epic. I really enjoyed that and I really hope to do that again next year. South Africa’s a great country and to race there it’s really a special race,” she said.
While a return to South Africa will rely on “finding the right partner”, Bigham has started to form the outline of her 2010 season, with improvement in both the world and European marathon championships high on the agenda. Since her first world championships in 2008, she has recorded consistent improvement, including top-ten results in both 2009 and 2010.
“The worlds are in June, earlier next year, so that and the European championships are definitely a big focus.”
With seven days a week to ride there could be more surprises in store for Dr Bigham.