Jamaica's first pro cyclist - an interview with Llori Sharpe
23-year-old Canyon//SRAM Generation rider talks about her route into the sport, a steep learning curve, inspiring the next generation of Jamaican cyclists and making chocolate
23-year-old Llori Sharpe is blazing a trail.
Sharpe is the first Jamaican cyclist, male or female, to ride for a UCI road team. She has spent the past two seasons racing for Canyon//SRAM Generation, a team set up to “help talented female athletes from diverse backgrounds reach the top of professional cycling and to help them break new ground for their future and the future of cycling” - according to the team’s website.
Sharpe began her sporting career as a swimmer, racing competitively in the pool between the ages of seven and fifteen. Her swim coach advised her to try triathlon after she put in some solid 5K run times. Her dad bought her a bike and she started training with the national cycling coach on the road.
Sharpe competed for her country on several occasions as a teenager, before making the switch to cycling full-time in 2020.
"I developed a knee injury,” Sharpe told Global Peloton, “and so running was severely inhibited, but cycling was something I could always do. My knee injury wasn't aggravated when I was cycling."
Sharpe found a new freedom out on the bike. She enjoyed the training much more than being in the pool.
"I really started disliking [swimming] so much. Training was getting super boring, just staring at the black line going up and down...just being able to ride through so many new places on the bike, see so many new things - that pushed my love for cycling even more."
Sharpe began competing as a cyclist and when Canyon//SRAM launched their development team, Canyon//SRAM Generation, she was one of many applicants for their first year. Sharpe got her place on the team and made the move to Europe for the 2022 season.
Canyon//SRAM Generation provide an almost unique opportunity for riders from lesser represented cycling nations like Jamaica to have a chance to progress in the sport. There is no easy, natural pathway for a Jamaican rider to make their way up the ranks. A team that is pro-active in giving opportunities to those from small nations is a god-send for riders like Sharpe.
"Cycling in Jamaica is predominantly recreational. I am one of the few competitive athletes there, especially on the girls' side. It's really just me and then we have our track cyclists and the other competitive cyclists are junior girls - just two.”
“There's really not much going on in terms of having something of a stepping stone to go from Jamaica to making the transition to European cycling, so I was really grateful for the opportunity with Canyon//SRAM Generation because that provided that sort of trajectory into the European peloton."
"In Jamaica, and in the Caribbean on the whole, we could probably do more work in seeing how best we can provide a pathway for cyclists to transition into the professional ranks."
Cycling in Jamaica and more widely in the Caribbean has a long way to go to be seriously competitive in the sport at the top level, but there are green shoots of promise rising up. One of the junior women Sharpe mentioned, Melaika Russell, finished second in the time-trial and won the road race at the recent Junior Caribbean Championships.
Also, there are more Caribbean cyclists in UCI teams now than ever before, including the likes of Teniel Campbell (Trinidad & Tobago and Jayco AlUla) and Abner Gonzalez (Puerto Rico and Movistar).
Adapting to European Racing
It’s not possible to compare racing in Jamaica and the Caribbean to Europe. The peloton sizes, race tactics, terrain, ability levels and so many other factors are so alien for a rider making the transition to Europe.
These riders don’t have a high-level junior racing or under-23 calendar where they can hone their craft. Young, talented riders like Sharpe have steep learning curves when they start racing in Europe. She feels as though she has made steps in the right direction over the last two years, but it goes slower than she’d like it to at times.
“I think I have progressed. Honestly, coming from the Caribbean, coming from Jamaica, there isn't really much that goes on in terms of development and like race readiness per se, so it was definitely a difficult transition to the European peloton.”
“I think I was able to settle in over the course of the couple of years. Of course there were times where I felt like my performance was so poor and I really wanted to prove to myself and the team that I do in fact deserve to be here. I'm definitely pleased with the progress that I've made over the couple of years and I can only hope to make even more progress in the years to come.”
“I came here like a complete blank slate. I was just soaking up as much as I could, learning as much as I could from the more experienced riders, from the DS, from any staff member who was willing to help and teach.”
When speaking to riders like Sharpe who have come from cycling scenes with smaller pelotons, there is a common answer to the question of what they needed to improve most when coming to Europe.
“Positioning. That's the first thing because I was very timid at the beginning. It took me a while to manoeuvre my way, not always to the front, even just to mid-pack. It took me a while but I was able to gain that confidence.”
“Not just positioning, descending as well, because the road service in Jamaica isn't ideal in most areas, so sometimes it can be scary to go downhill. So I brought that sort of fear when I came here, but with practise of course I was able to gain the confidence to descend better.”
There’s still a long way to go for Sharpe and riders like her, but the Jamaican climber is keeping things in perspective and, as the clichéd mantra goes, trusting the process.
“I'm still working on being patient with myself, because I've come to realise that sometimes I can be wanting results now, but failing to recognise that it's a journey. You can only really make progress when you make these simple steps. That's just how growth occurs, just those simple steps, day in and day out, then you can make even more progress.”
Sports-Scientist, Chocolate-Maker and Cyclist
Over the last two years, Sharpe has balanced her cycling career with building her family chocolate business and studying. She recently graduated with a First Class Honours in Sports Science, but had to miss her graduation because she was in Spain.
“Studying is quite a daunting task and having had to balance that with cycling was really difficult. So I'm really excited for maybe a two year break from school, then I may pursue a masters.”
“As it pertains to chocolate…that's like my baby, my passion project, because it's just been a roller coaster with it. I'm really happy with how much it's grown and how much it will continue to grow in the years to come.”
It’s clearly been a busy couple of years, but Sharpe seems happiest that way. She loves cycling, but feels that it’s important for her to do other things too.
You could draw a parallel with Sharpe’s reason for leaving swimming, she doesn’t want to stare at a black line all day. Variety is a motivator.
“Sometimes [being a pro cyclist] can be robotic and it just becomes boring and then cycling just becomes another chore. At the end of the day, even though it's your job, you still want to have some sort of fun, some sort of pleasure out of it.”
“But also you have to make a deliberate effort to do things outside of cycling, so your life just doesn't become just about cycling, because you're more than just a cyclist, you're an actual person.”
Inspiring Others
Sharpe is ambitious in all areas of her life. That’s clear to see. But she’s driven not only by what she can achieve, but by what the Jamaican cyclists after her will do. Riders like Sharpe, the pioneers of their national cycling scenes, have great power to inspire.
“It would be a privilege to represent Jamaica at the biggest stages, whether that’s the Olympics, World Championships.”
“But at the same time, there's a part of me that would just be content with inspiring, hopefully, other people in Jamaica or in the Caribbean to make the transition to become professionals and to see how far they themselves can go in the sport.”
“Either of those options are fine with me. I just want to see, not only myself grow, but other people from where I'm from doing the sport.”
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What an incredible young woman talented on and off the bike! Want to know where we can buy her chocolate! 🙂
Wow!..class young person..speaks to need for development teams, for separate u23 for women.