Wendy Houvenaghel

Wendy Louise Houvenaghel, born Wendy Louise McLean ( born November 27, 1974 in Magherafelt, Ulster ) is a British cyclist with successes on the track and road.

Sporting career

2002, at the age of 28 years, Wendy Houvenaghel began seriously to operate power cycling. In the following years, she won national titles and World Cup rankings to rail and road.

2008 Houvenaghel was in Manchester for the first time World Champion in the Team Pursuit ( with Rebecca Romero and Joanna Rowsell ). In the Track World Championships 2009 in Pruszków she won her second title with the team ( with Elizabeth Armitstead and Rowsell ), in the individual pursuit, she was Vice World Champion. On September 13, 2009, she won the Individual Time Trial Chrono Champenois - Trophée Européen in Bétheny.

At the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 Wendy Houvenaghel won a silver medal in the individual pursuit behind her teammate Rebecca Romero. Two years later she was in the 2010 Second individual pursuit at the Commonwealth Games. In November 2010, she was together with Katie Colclough and Laura Trott European Champion in the Team Pursuit. In the UCI Track World Championships in 2011, she was again World Champion in the Team Pursuit, together with Laura Trott and Danielle King, a year later she was in Melbourne vice-world champion in the individual pursuit.

2012 was Houvenaghel British champion in the time trial and won the race Chrono Champenois - Trophée Européen one more time. In the UCI Track World Championships 2012, she finished second in the individual pursuit. Despite these good results, she was not nominated for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Professional and private life

During her school years Wendy Houvenaghel was very athletic, she ran hockey, cross-country skiing and horseback riding (but not cycling ). After high school she began studying dentistry at the University of Dundee; During this time she also met her future husband. Afterwards she worked as a dentist in the Royal Air Force. From 2004 she worked only part-time, to increasingly focus on cycling.