Toni Bradshaw

Toni Janne Bradshaw (married name Strong; born 25 February 1976) is a former New Zealand triathlete and road cyclist. She represented her country at four UCI Road World Championships, in the 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010, and at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. In 2005, she won the bronze medal in the women's road race at the Oceania Road Cycling Championships.

Early life and education Bradshaw was born on 25 February 1976. She studied at the University of Otago, graduating with a Bachelor of Physiotherapy in December 1997. Bradshaw later earned a Postgraduate Diploma in Sport Medicine from Otago in 2007.

Triathlon In 1997, Bradshaw represented New Zealand at the ITU triathlon age-group world championships in Perth, placing 24th in a time of 2:19:36 in the women's 20–24 year-old event. The following year, she won the Otago triathlon title, but later sustained a stress fracture and was unable to attend the age-group world championships in Montreal. Bradshaw said that she was "starting to feel good at the right time after having a bad patch" in the lead up to the 2000 age-group world championships in Perth, where she recorded a time of 2:17:58 in coming 17th in the women's 20–24 years division, after being in third place at the start of the final leg. Her coach, Jane Sullivan, said that a niggling hip injury hindered Bradshaw during the final run. She impressed the national cycling selectors in a women's tour event in February 2001 and received a late call-up the following month into the New Zealand number two team for the New Zealand World Cup, the second round of the 2001 UCI Women's Road World Cup.

2002 In January 2002, Bradshaw was the first woman to finish in the Lake Dunstan Challenge, won by Matthew Randall. Bradshaw's time of 2:19:44 was under the previous race record of 2:22:00 set by Greg Henderson two years earlier. In the first of those events, the Australia World Cup raced over 103 kilometres from Cooma to Thredbo, she finished in 57th place. In the Tour de Snowy, Bradshaw was 35th on general classification, with a best finish of 27th on stage 4 of the tour.

2003 Bradshaw finished eighth in the 2003 New Zealand women's road race championship. She followed that up four days later with a 66th-place finish in the Australia World Cup raced in Geelong, the first leg of the 2004 UCI Women's Road World Cup. she placed 69th on general classification, with a best individual stage result of 46th on the seventh stage from Pozzo d'Adda to Oggiono. Bradshaw rounded out her 2004 European campaign with a 49th placing in the Sparkassen Giro Bochum in Germany.

2005 Bradshaw began 2005 with a 10th placing in the Australian National Road Race Championships at Echunga in South Australia.

Part of the New Zealand 'A' team–alongside Michelle Kiesanowski, Susie Wood, Johanna Buick, Michelle Hyland and Melissa Holt–for the first two rounds of the 2005 UCI Women's Road World Cup, Bradshaw placed 27th in the Australia World Cup and 23th in the New Zealand World Cup.

Bradshaw then travelled to France to train with other New Zealand riders at BikeNZ's training centre at Limoux under the newly appointed road coach Jacques Landry. In the 2005 Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin, from 13 to 22 May, Bradshaw was 31st on general classification and 47th on points classification, while the New Zealand team was 13th overall. In June, the New Zealand team was second on teams classification in the five-day Tour Cycliste Féminin de la Drôme, with Bradshaw 12th in the individual general classification. The following month, Bradshaw was sixth on general classification at the Tour de Bretagne Féminin, with a best stage finish of seventh on the fourth and final stage of the race.

In September, Bradshaw competed in the women's elite road race at the 2005 UCI Road World Championships in Madrid, finishing 70th. She followed that up finishing 27th in the Geelong Tour.

Im March, Bradshaw was one of six New Zealand representatives in the women's road race at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Part of a five-woman breakaway on lap two of the nine-lap race, Bradshaw was in contention for a medal. On lap seven, she attacked but the eventual gold medallist, Australia's Natalie Bates counter-attacked and broke clear in a decisive move. Following team orders, Bradshaw then sat up and she and the remaining three riders in the leading group were caught by the peloton. Bradshaw eventually finished 16th, one place ahead of Sarah Ulmer who had been regarded as New Zealand's best chance of a medal in the event.

Bradshaw raced for Les Pruneaux d'Agen in the 2006 Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin in May, finishing 25th on general classification, while her team was 11th overall. She rode for Les Pruneaux d'Agen again in the Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale at the end of June, finishing no worse than 11th on all stages of the tour, including a fifth-place finish in the opening stage, an individual time trial, and ranking 7th on general classification, 8th on points classification and 9th in the mountains classification.

2007

In 2007, Bradshaw finished 3rd overall at the Tour de Bretagne Féminin, as well as 3rd and 5th on individual stages.

In 2024, Bradshaw was among a group of former New Zealand Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games competitors that graduated from the Wāhine Toa Leadership Programme, designed to develop female leadership in sport, run by the New Zealand Olympic Committee.

Physiotherapy career After graduating from Otago at the end of 1997, Bradshaw moved to Timaru, where she gained experience working with physiotherapist Paul Annear. She joined Ponsonby Physiotherapy in Auckland while still actively competing as a road cyclist, and later became an owner of the practice.