In her final season as a professional rider, Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) is set to ride a busy schedule including the returning Milan-San Remo, the Vuelta España Femenina and the Tour de France Femmes.
“I’m basically doing everything. I think the only [one-day] WorldTour races that I skip in the spring are Gent-Wevelgem and De Panne, so I’m racing every weekend,” Deignan told Cyclingnews at Lidl-Trek’s January training camp.
“I’m pretty flexible now, obviously my role is a little bit different, so it’s about supporting the goals of the other riders. I’m somebody who likes racing, not someone who craves those long training camps at altitude or whatever.”
For the moment, her Grand Tour plans are “the Vuelta and the Tour,” but “skipping the Giro, because people are saying it’s maybe too close”.
This would leave a big block of racing in Belgium and Italy to start 2025, culminating in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. The Brit also confirmed she won’t race Liège-Bastogne-Liège due to its proximity to the Vuelta.
Deignan announced her retirement last November after an illustrious career and 19 years at cycling’s top level. After over a decade of being a leader, she now plans to race as a domestique.
It’s going to be a season of lasts for the former World Champion, however, she’s prepared to hang up the wheels on her own terms, knowing she extracted all her potential and won nigh on everything she could.
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“I’m really aware that there’s no going back when I stop, it’s really the end,” Deignan said.
“So I don’t want to look back with any regrets and have a countdown feeling towards the end. I really want to try and take it all in because it is an amazing job and I do appreciate it. I want to look back with fond memories.
Her big goal – “To enjoy it more than anything”, driven primarily by her desire to help young teammates reach their potential and utilise her experience best.
“Now, my motivation is different,” said the 36-year-old. “I take a lot of enjoyment from seeing riders developing confidence because I think you can have all the data analysis and the nutrition and everything else in the world that we do have now.
“But if a rider is doubting themselves and doesn’t believe in themselves, then you have nothing. To be able to help them really, truly believe in themselves is very important.”
‘Another opportunity to show that we belong on the same stage as the men’
Deignan took huge wins throughout her career, notably at Worlds in 2015, the Tour of Flanders and Strade Bianche the year after while wearing rainbows. She also has won Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Course by Le Tour de France and both Trofeo Alfredo Binda and GP de Plouay on several occasions.
The Brit’s last victory was at the inaugural Paris-Roubaix Femmes in 2021, with bloodied hands after completing 80km solo in the mud and rain en route to the iconic velodrome. With 43 wins racked up, Deignan may not win again in her final season, but she isn’t fazed.
“I appreciate the cyclical nature of the sport. I benefited from the help of other teammates for so long,” she said, explaining her new domestique role.
“It’s a team sport. And I suppose also seeing my husband [Phillip Deignan, who raced for Team Sky until 2018] he was a domestique, and there’s great value in that.
“Nobody wins a bike race without their team. I don’t have an ego and I guess I don’t feel that I need to retire on top. I think that would be a harder option because you’re walking away thinking, maybe I could have won more.
“Whereas I’m walking away knowing I’ve really done everything. There will be nothing left to give, which I think actually, for me, going into retirement, is easier to accept.”
After that now-iconic win at the Roubaix Velodrome, Deignan will be racing at the first edition of the new Milan-San Remo. It will return to the women’s calendar on March 22 for the first time since 2005, when it was called the Primavera Rosa and Germany’s Trixi Worrack took victory.
“I’m lucky and proud enough to say that I’m the only woman who’s got all three Monuments that currently exist,” Deignan said. “Obviously, I’m excited to try and go for the fourth, but I think I’m an outside bet.
“It’s pretty clear that we’ll race there for Barzi [Elisa Balsamo], which I’m excited to be part of. I just want to be there, it’s cool.
“The last winner was Trixi Worrack and she was a teammate of mine and a really cool rider, I learned a lot from her. The fact that it disappeared, and now it’s back, I hope, means that it will never disappear again. It’s another opportunity to show that we belong on the same stage as the men.”
