Sophie's Story
Adelaide cyclist Sophie Edwards was a key part of the women’s team pursuit quartet that started the Australian gold rush at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022.
Australia’s women’s 4000m team pursuit riders – Sophie, Georgia Baker, Maeve Plouffe and Chloe Moran – blew the competition away as they won the gold medal and set a new Commonwealth record on the opening day of the Games at the Lee Valley velodrome in London.
They dominated New Zealand in the final to win by more than five seconds. Their time of 4:12.234 shaved another two seconds off the Commonwealth record they had set earlier in the day during the heats.
Sophie, a rising star of Australian cycling, starting out riding with her dad at the velodrome near their home in Adelaide.
Picked up by the South Australian Institute of Sport’s Talent Identification Program, her breakthrough performance was a bronze medal at the 2018 World Junior Championships in the individual pursuit, where she broke Amy Cure’s eight-year age group record.
Since her success in Birmingham, solid performances on the road in Europe and the Tour Down Under – including a fifth-place finish on stage two in 2024 – have cemented Sophie as a rider to watch.
Switching mid-season between the road and the track has caused problems for some cyclists, but Sophie loves competing in both domains.
“It’s definitely been a challenge, learning to race well on the road and back it up on the track, but it’s something I really enjoy,” she said.
“I love the variety: getting to work in different teams on the road, then coming back to the track environment feeling fresh and ready to work together.
“I think we’re finding a good balance now, and it’s just going to have to become part of the nature of track racing from now on anyway, with a lot of the best track racers in the world also performing on the road, too.”
Sophie has a bachelor of health and medical sciences from the University of Adelaide.
Read More
