"I genuinely thought cycling was a weird old bloke’s sport": One of the most successful British riders ever reflects on an illustrious career

After almost 20 years in the professional peloton, Elizabeth Deignan decided to retire in the middle of the 2025 season. The 37-year-old accumulated 43 road victories in her long and successful career, including the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix Femmes, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour de France 2020 (back when it was still a one-day event) and the 2015 World Road Race Championships.

One of the first decisions she took after retiring was to leave Monaco and go back to her hometown (Otley, in Yorkshire). “Monaco served a purpose, but being home is lovely. I love the people. I can't go to a supermarket without having a conversation with a stranger, which wasn't the case in Monaco,” she said in an interview to Cycling Weekly.

“People are very open and warm, and then you've got the countryside, the greenness. And I suppose there's something about your roots – it’s a physical feeling. When I land into Leeds Bradford Airport, there's an exhale for me: I'm back.”

Retirement, she admits, has arrived more smoothly than expected. “It's a bit scary how easy it’s been so far. I'm not naive; I know that moment will come,” Deignan said, referencing her husband Philip Deignan’s own experience, who was also a professional cyclist and retired in 2018.

“People talk about this grief process, grieving your previous identity, but I suppose I'd already started building my other identity. Maybe it'll hit me in December when everyone goes to training camps, but then I'll be able to go to my daughter's nativity play at school – things I've not been able to do for years. I was very ready to retire.”

Although Deignan is currently pregnant with her third child, retirement had already been planned before pregnancy. “It was a gut feeling. Cycling started to feel like sacrifice rather than the dream it used to be,” she said. “I'd achieved everything I ever wanted to. If the fire had not gone out, if I really still wanted it, I could have made it work, but I just didn't.”

Her cycling journey began almost by chance, after British Cycling Federation visited her school. “Imagine if I hadn’t gone to school that day – my life would have been completely different,” she recalled. “I genuinely thought cycling was a weird old bloke’s sport, and I didn't really identify with anyone within the sport.”

She initially viewed the opportunity pragmatically, even if she didn't want to give up other sports that interested her much more at the time. “I got £500 and a free bike, and I thought, ‘I'm not going to say no, but I'm going to carry on my hockey and my netball and my other sports at school.’”

The decisive moment that convinced her to pursue a cycling career came at a track World Cup event. “It was glamorous, it was exciting, it was bright lights, and from that moment I was captivated. I didn't really enjoy school, and [British Cycling] were starting to put this pathway through towards the Olympics. I'd always loved sport, always wanted to be an athlete, and it clicked.”

After completing her A-levels, Deignan joined the Track Academy in Manchester in 2004. She recalled a turning point later in her track career. “At the 2008 Olympic Games, the only medal that they didn't get was the women's points race. That October, I won the points race, the scratch race and the team pursuit [at the track World Cup in Manchester], and filled the gap, so there was a place there for me. I was on this pathway where I was getting just enough money to support myself.”

Financial independence and boredom with her life at the time were the two main factors to convince her to switch to road race.

"I'd become tired of the Manchester life, and had a taste of the road. I was very fortunate I'd started working with Emma [Wade], my agent, because the Olympics was coming and there was money out there from personal sponsors, which other athletes in Europe didn't have. I could afford to turn my back on the funding and try to make it on the road in 2011. I was also fortunate that I come from a privileged background; my parents would have been there to catch me if I needed them."

In 2018, Deignan temporarily stepped away from racing to become a mother for the first time. "The decision to become a mother mid-career was never meant as a pioneering one; it was very much an emotional decision: I'm married, I want to be a young mum. Again I was guided through that process brilliantly by Emma. That made a huge difference, having somebody who advocated for me and believed in me and believed in the process."

"Starting a relationship with the Trek team [in 2019] was just brilliant and completely changed my enjoyment of the sport. I felt really valued and really happy off the bike. Becoming a mother was, without a doubt, the best thing that's ever happened to me. It was no longer all about me, and I found that liberating."

Reflecting on her racing identity, Deignan describes herself as an all-rounder. "I wouldn't describe myself as a GC rider or a climber – I don't have the mentality for it. Sometimes I look at a rider like Tom Pidcock, who is a very versatile rider, and I think, 'Why’s he putting himself through trying to be a GC rider when he could win every Classic on the calendar?'”

Asked to name her proudest achievement, Deignan's answer might not be an expected one. "I'm very proud of when I won the UCI WorldTour in 2020 – pandemic year. All the noise from everybody was, 'Train! Train!' I was in lockdown with a one-year-old baby, thinking, 'I am not going to continue to train at this intensity. I'm going to back off a little bit until I know that the racing programme is back in place.'"

"I had confidence in myself, I ignored the noise, and I won the WorldTour, because I was the most consistent rider in the world when the calendar was put back on. I’m proud of myself for being able to do that and deliver."