Shane Edwin Sutton OBE (born 13 June 1957) is an Australian-born former professional racing cyclist and cycling coach.
Racing career He rode under Phil Griffiths as a member of the first British-based professional team to enter the Tour de France in 1987 and went on to win the 1990 Milk Race. Sutton was also one of the four men to win gold in the team pursuit for Australia at the 1978 Commonwealth Games along with his brother, Gary Sutton.
Coaching career After retiring Shane worked as a coach with Welsh Cycling, taking the team to a successful Manchester Commonwealth Games before joining the British Cycling set-up in 2002. He was also employed as head coach at Team Sky but scaled back his involvement to become a part-time performance adviser for the professional team in 2013. Following the departure of Dave Brailsford from his role as British Cycling's Performance Director in April 2014, Sutton was promoted from his previous position as head coach to the newly created role of Technical Director.
Sutton resigned from British Cycling in 2016, after allegations of discrimination were made against him by Paralympic gold medalist Darren Kenny and cyclist Jessica Varnish. A subsequent internal investigation by British Cycling upheld a complaint of "inappropriate and discriminatory language" used by Sutton against Varnish. UK Sport, the UK national sport funding body, expressed serious concerns over British Cycling's handling of the investigation.
During 2017 and 2018, Sutton was head coach for the national Chinese track cycling team.
Awards Shane was awarded the accolade of Sports Council for Wales' (now Sport Wales) Coach of the Year Award in 1998.Top Welsh sports coach sought 12 September 2006
Sutton won the "Coach of the Year Award" at the sports coach UK Coaching Awards in December 2008. He was also one of seven coaches to win a "High Performance Coach of the Year" award.
Sutton was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.
Results
1978 Team Pursuit Commonwealth Games (with Colin Fitzgerald, Kevin Nichols and Gary Sutton)
1981 5th Herald Sun Tour Fastest time Goulburn to Sydney Classic
1982 55th World Road Race Championships 1st Bendigo International Madison (with Danny Clark)
1983 3rd Australian National Road Race Championships 1st Herald Sun Tour 1st Stage 2, Herald Sun Tour 1st Stage 6, Herald Sun Tour 1st Stage 11, Herald Sun Tour 1st Stage 16, Herald Sun Tour 1st Bendigo International Madison (with Gary Sutton) 1st and fastest time Goulburn to Sydney Classic
1984 3rd Australian National Road Race Championships 5th Beeston 1st Newport 1st Stage 10, Griffin 1000 8th Herald Sun Tour 1st Stage 2, Herald Sun Tour
1985 3rd Sealink International 1st Stage 8, Sealink International
1986 3rd Milk Race
1987 9th Norwich Spring Classic 15th Tour of Ireland 1st Stage 18, Herald Sun Tour
1988 10th Milk Race 5th Herald Sun Tour 1st Stage 8, Herald Sun Tour
1989 9th Herald Sun Tour 1st Stage 5, Herald Sun Tour 2nd Stage 10, Herald Sun Tour
1990 1st in General Classification Milk Race 1st Stage 3, Milk Race
1991 4th Mazda Alpine Tour
1993 3rd British National Road Race Championships
References