‘A huge step forward’ – Lizzie Deignan hails Tour de France Femmes opportunity for women’s cycling

British cycling legend Lizzie Deignan has hailed the Tour de France Femmes as “a huge step forward” and also a massive opportunity for the sport.

The 33-year-old, who currently rides for Trek–Segafredo, said she has not yet walked away from the sport because of the “many opportunities” on offer and the momentum that women’s cycling now has.

Speaking on Eurosport’s ‘Power of Sport’ show, Deignan cited the maternity clauses in contracts as making it financially possible for women to return to the sport and also gave her thoughts on the start of the Tour de France Femmes.

“I never envisioned still racing my bike at 33 years old with two children, but the thing is, there are so many opportunities now in women’s cycling, that’s why I haven’t walked away,” she said.

“That’s why I’ve not retired because we are at this kind of time where there’s so much momentum and I want to be a part of it. The Tour de France Femmes, it’s a huge step forward for us because we really need it.

“Globally, everybody has heard of the Tour de France. It’s a huge event. As our sport progresses, we need a slice of that opportunity as well. We have pushed for it for a few years, and we are finally seeing the results. We have for the first time in modern cycling, a women’s Tour de France.

“The platform that it will give women’s cycling is huge. There are millions of people watching the Tour de France, and if they continue to turn the TV on and watch the Tour de France Femmes, then that’s the kind of opportunity that can increase investment in our sport.

“The fact that we now have maternity clauses in our contracts, which we have never had before makes it financially possible for women to come back,” she added.

“When teams do that, it leaves no room for other teams not to do the same thing. Since having a family, I can’t be 100 per cent focused on being a professional athlete all the time. I actually think in a strange way that makes me a better athlete.

“I have to focus on my daughter, and she can make me smile in 10 seconds of seeing her. So yeah, I owe a lot to the balance that becoming a mum has brought me. I never expected that my career would take off the way it has. Also, I never expected the growth in women’s cycling that we’ve experienced, so it was impossible for me to imagine the opportunities that I now have in my career.

Deignan became the first woman to win a ‘triple crown’ of all the women’s Monument classics last year when she triumphed at the Paris-Roubaix Femmes with a stunning breakaway. She said, looking back on her start in road racing, that it was an unimaginable success.

“I was incredibly lucky that first of all, I was talent spotted at my school,” she said. “I wasn’t from a cycling background or a cycling family. I fell in love with cycling. I had a very successful start on the track. I really enjoyed it, but I still felt the calling of the road. Road cycling is a sense of freedom. You are a little more of your own boss. That suits my personality a bit better.

“I will always be the first ever which makes it a little bit extra special. The win [Paris-Roubaix Femmes] was so much more than me individually, it was like a win for women’s cycling. It is hard to kind of explain to a non-cyclist how big and iconic the Paris-Roubaix is. It’s the ‘hell of the north’, that is the nickname for it, and it is simply because you have cobbles jutted and thrown into the ground.

“It is not nice, a cobbled street. It’s a relentless section of cobbles. It takes somebody to have a lot of luck, a lot of skill, obviously a lot of power as well, to become the champion of the ‘hell of the north’.”

Deignan is aiming to be on the start line for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games after having finished behind Marianne Vos to take the silver medal in the women’s road race at London 2012 and she remembers the event well.

“I’d never experienced an Olympic Games, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but that was just beyond expectations,” she said.

“It was a huge event, like everyone in the country got behind it. I think there was this huge sense of national pride, which I had not experienced in any other event before.

“In terms of the physical change that your body goes through, it is actually quite humbling and makes you realise that your body is so much more capable than you expected it to be able to.

“It makes you almost feel like superwoman. I would encourage people to believe in what their bodies are capable of because it is not just me, I think most women would be surprised just what they are able to do.”

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