Until the point that the call through to let him know that he’d been selected for Team Scotland’s cycling squad for the Commonwealth Games, Tim Shoreman was not having a good day.
He was in the midst of a race in the USA and, having just crashed heavily, was tending to the knee injury he’d suffered. When he realised he’d missed five calls from the Team Scotland selectors, his mood quickly changed from one of optimism that he’d made the cut to one of dread, that someone was desperate to break the news to him that he’d be watching Glasgow 2026 from home rather than riding in it.
But, when, on the sixth attempt, answered the call, he finally got the news he’d been working towards for literally years.
“It had been a quite a stressful day - I crashed, had a knee injury and so couldn't ride and then I kept missing the call,” he says.
“They had told us all they would phone us either way whether you were selected or not so I knew I was getting a phone call. It was around 9am in the time zone I was in and I had missed five calls so I was getting a bit worried. Initially, I thought I'd made it into the team but the longer it drags on, the more you doubt yourself.
“But eventually, I got through to the right person who told me I was in the team for Glasgow. This is such an important step in my career because it's my first major games of this kind.”
2026 has been a breakthrough year for Shoreman. Having begun his cycling career as a mountain biker, Shoreman switch to the road and became Scottish champion for the first time in 2023 before beginning to dabble in track racing and becoming Scottish champion in the velodrome the following year.
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It’s this season, though, during which he’s broken onto the international scene.
A surprise call-up to the British squad for the European Track Cycling Championships in February of this year marked a significant step-up in his career and when he returned home with a top-ten finish in the individual pursuit under his belt, it was a sure sign he has what’s required to compete at the highest level on the track. It wasn’t though, his results that were most significant for Shoreman at this European Championships, it was being included in the GB team for the first time, and what he’s garnered from that, which has been the most valuable aspect of his year so far.
“European selection was such an unexpected one for me, because it came at the last minute. But it's definitely made me aim higher and also want to go back to another major competition and, next time, with proper preparation, and have a better go of it,” the 26-year-old says.
“I gained a lot of experience from being around people who have competed at the biggest competitions like the Worlds and Olympics and I just learned how to be more calm in that environment because it is very stressful. And GB knew what I was capable of on the road and so believed in me (on the track) and really helped me.”
Until February, Shoreman worked full-time as a corrosion engineer and so was combining training and competing with his employment. But having packed-in his job in order to concentrate fully on cycling, his performance, particularly on the road, has improved dramatically.
Glasgow 2026 will, then, require a shift in mindset as he moves onto the track and while he has somewhat less experience on the track, he’s heading into Glasgow 2026, where he will be an integral member of the men’s endurance squad, with lofty ambitions.
“It's quite hard to balance the road and the track, especially given the Commonwealth Games is in the middle of the road season and it is difficult to balance them, because the demands are so different,” he says.
“But I'm at a high level on the track, so that's the priority for now.
“And at the Commonwealth Games, I’m not quite sure, to be honest, of my targets, but I’d love a medal.”
