How her medical degree gives Sophie Edwards balance and focus on the bike

Source : ABC NEWS

Sophie Edwards is used to being busy.

Over the past month, she has raced on the road in Warrnambool, Sydney, and Brisbane as part of the ProVelo Super League series.

She has claimed victories in all three locations too, winning her second Warrnambool Classic over 156.6km, the 101.9km-long third stage — and overall classification — of the Harbour City GP and the 64.4km opening stage of the Q Tour.

On Wednesday night, she also raced at the Anna Meares Velodrome in Queensland.

She won there too, claiming the 4,000m national individual pursuit, her fifth national track title.

It appears that not only is Edwards insanely busy, but she’s also used to being versatile.

“It’s been such a whirlwind,” Edwards told ABC Sport at the National Track championships.

“Like, everything and anything over the last five days, from hilly, rainy road races through to a four-minute effort on the track.

“It’s not easy, and it’s something that I’ve gotten better at doing now that I’ve gotten older as an athlete.

“I had a really big roadblock over summer, racing the Tour Down Under, putting together some top 10 results in the World Tour and now just transitioning to the track.

“But I’m really pleased that I have such versatility at the moment to be able to perform on the road and the track, and hopefully I can keep up this form for the rest of the week.”

All that on its own would be impressive enough.

But an intensive racing programme barely scratches the surface of the 26-year-old’s lifestyle.

Edwards is in her third year of studying medicine at Flinders University — not exactly a degree that is easy to coast through, nor one that offers plenty of free time to ride bikes.

“It’s been really challenging,” Edwards admitted.

“I’ve got good at waking up in the morning. I have the most amazing family and partner, who’ll often get up early to train with me. He works in the same hospital, so he’s been a big part of being able to focus on both my studying and my training.

“I think, for me, being able to switch between the study and the cycling brings me this perspective that I didn’t have as a junior athlete,” Edwards continues.

“It makes me realise how lucky I am just to get to race my bike sometimes for a living, and I guess in some ways I think it has actually helped me become both a better student and a better cyclist.”

Despite that support, studying still has to come first — and sacrifices have to be made.

The South Australian missed out on competing at the Grafton-Inverell Classic because she was on placement in the labour ward at her local hospital.

That being said, Edwards did get to see three births on that Sunday, though, so that’s something.

The Grafton to Inverell was one of the two ProVelo Super League events she missed due to her studies, absences that arguably cost her the overall series title, although the Butterfield Zip Track Racing rider still finished second overall.

In fact, Edwards is seemingly riding as well as she ever has, challenging on the road as well as the track.

It’s enough to make one’s head spin.

“To be honest, I’m still trying to work it out myself,” Edwards said of her plans when it comes to the bike.

“I’m a full-time student, I’m in my third year of medical degree, so at the moment I’m on placement often from 9 to 5, and I’m just trying to fit in training around it.

“But definitely the last few months of racing on the road and on the track and seeing that, despite obviously my intense study commitments, I seem to be just getting better and better on the bike, makes me really think about what the future might look like.

“Maybe I will have a punt again on the road in Europe?

“We’ll just have to wait and see.”

For now, the initial focus is on the Commonwealth Games, where four years ago Edwards claimed a superb team pursuit gold alongside Georgia Baker, Chloe Moran and Maeve Plouffe, a feat she hopes to repeat in Glasgow.

“My favourite event is the team pursuit,” Edwards said.

“There’s nothing else better than pushing yourself to the limit alongside the girls that you train with day in, day out.”

Edwards will also compete in the scratch race, points race and elimination race over the rest of the week, as well as the team pursuit with a group of young South Australian riders, a role she is taking incredibly seriously.

“I’m super passionate about role modelling and helping our next generation of South Australian riders,” Edwards said.

“Help them learn what it’s like to race in a bunch, to work in a team, and push themselves to see what they can achieve.

“A lot of them are heading to Europe in a few weeks, so this will be the last chance to race with them, mentor them and send them away to go and chase their dreams, while I go back to uni.”

Edwards first has goals of her own to achieve, honing her road-race endurance into track-based speed.

“I feel like I’m slowly starting to sharpen the knife, getting better at shorter and shorter efforts,” Edwards said.

“I don’t want to peak too early. My big goal for this year is the Commonwealth Games, but I think that prep with the Tour Down Under, Road Nationals at the start of the year set me up in a really good place, and now I’m just kind of, I guess, pulling together all of the finishing touches.”

On Wednesday night in Brisbane, Edwards proved her knife is already plenty sharp enough.

After setting a new national individual pursuit record of 4:32.651 in qualifying, Edwards backed up in the final with a blistering display to overhaul a 1.7-second deficit over the first kilometre to power past national kilo time trial champion Claudia Marcks and win by 1.24 seconds.

That earned Edwards a first individual Australian track championships title since 2023.

Seems like being busy suits her — and that’s ominous heading into a very busy 2026 season.