08/03/2023

"You don’t decide to have a family to break boundaries" - Lizzie Deignan underplays role as women's cycling pioneer

Women's cycling has experienced a significant expansion, but it remains in a phase of growth. In contrast to men's cycling, there are certain barriers that are expected to be surpassed for the first time, such as the decision between pursuing a sporting career or starting a family. Nevertheless, Lizzie Deignan is among the pioneering few who have managed to do both.

After taking time off from cycling to start a family in 2018, Deignan made a comeback to the sport, quickly winning the Women's Tour and later becoming the first-ever winner of the Paris-Roubaix Femmes race. She is now taking another break from cycling after giving birth to her second child in September of last year.

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“The decision to have a family, for us, was not a decision based on trying to be a role model for people or break boundaries in our sport. It was just simply a personal decision that we wanted to start a family, and all these things come as a byproduct of that. I’m lucky enough that I’m happy to take that on and to fulfill that role of showing what’s possible, but it was very much just a personal decision. You don’t decide to have a family to break boundaries,” she told Cyclingnews.

A supportive environment also helped her make the decision. “Things like paternity clauses, they haven’t put those into men’s contracts yet. It’s at a very early stage in cycling of understanding the best way to move forward with it. I think there are still obviously tweaks to be made, but it’s better than it was.”

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She is already back on her bike and training to get back to the peloton. “I’m definitely itching to race again. It feels like a long time. I feel like the pressure is off in that sense. I shouldn’t have felt like it, but I did feel like I had something to prove the last time around.”

She emphasizes that everyone's experience is unique, but for her, it was unquestionably a success. “You don’t really know until you’re in the situation. But I think for me, going to watch the Tour de France was really good because I was like, ‘I’m not done yet’. I really realised that,” concluded the Trek - Segafredo rider.