"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.

“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.”

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.