Promising British pro Anna Shackley “forced to quit top-level sport” due to
heart problem, her SD Worx team announces

More unfortunate news has emerged from the women’s side of the sport this
morning, as SD Worx-Protime announced that their promising young British
rider Anna Shackley has been forced to “quit top-level sport” due to a
heart problem first diagnosed in January.

22-year-old Shackley has been regarded by many as one of the most talented
and exciting young riders in the women’s peloton, since turning pro with SD
Worx in 2021.

After securing overall top tens at the Challenge by La Vuelta and the Tour
de Romandie in 2022, last year Shackley bagged a run of highly impressive
stage race results, finishing fourth on GC at the UAE Tour, 13th at the
Giro Donne, seventh at the Tour de Romandie, and second overall at the Tour
de l’Avenir Femmes (where she was sandwiched between fellow U23 stars
Shirin van Anrooij and Gaia Realini on the podium).

The Scottish rider also won U23 bronze in front of her home crowds at the
Glasgow world road race championships – an experience she described to
road.cc as “strange” but “really nice” – and road race silver in the U23s
at the European championships in the Netherlands in September.

However, according to SD Worx, Shackley was diagnosed with cardiac
arrhythmia in January, bringing her 2024 season to an abrupt halt.

“Following this, she underwent a heart screening in Maxima Medisch Centrum
in Veldhoven in collaboration with the SD Worx-Protime’s medical team.
Here, several irregularities were found,” her team said in a statement
today.

“That was the reason to immediately take her off the bike and do more
extensive tests and procedures at the hospital in Barcelona near her
hometown. All this time, Shackley did not train or compete in races.

“The latest result of all the tests and procedures has led to the
conclusion that the heart problem is not compatible with a top-level sports
career.”

Shackley’s DS at SD Worx, Danny Stam, added: “We are very sorry to see
Anna’s cycling career end like this. She was one of the bigger talents in
the women’s peloton. We saw in recent years that she was making good
progress and we believed she could grow to the world top.

“It is especially unfortunate for her that she is now forced to stop. On
the other hand, we are also happy that we were able to prevent any more
dangerous complications. We hope Anna can return to her ‘normal’ life and
we will work with the team to see how we can help.”

<https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-16-april-2024-307849#live-blog-item-56913>

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