The Deignan family is growing ❤️ Lizzie Deignan her husband Phil announced today that they are expecting their third child.
I’m proud of every sponsor that I’ve ever been associated with. I think that’s something that not every athlete can say, but I really represented sponsors that I feel proud to have represented.
Deignan has more than 40 individual professional wins to her name, covering all of cycling’s most prestigious one-day races including, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Strade Bianche, and Ronde van Vlaanderen.
She won a rainbow jersey at the World Championships in Richmond, USA in 2015, a Commonwealth title in 2014, and holds multiple National Champion titles. Notably, she captured a silver medal on home soil at the 2012 Olympics, a feat that cemented her place among Britain’s cycling greats.
But Deignan is much more than her palmarès and can be described as a pioneer in women’s cycling.
Throughout her career, she has been a consummate leader and mentor amongst an immensely talented roster of women and has also helped lead the charge for more exposure on women’s cycling and better compensation for her colleagues.
Then, in 2018, she became one of the first athletes in the sport to show that motherhood and racing are not mutually exclusive. This pause in her career was a rarity in the women’s professional peloton at the time however, after giving birth to her first daughter, Orla, Deignan made a successful comeback to professional cycling in 2019, winning The Women’s Tour in her first year back to top level competition.
She continued a remarkable return to racing, topping the UCI Women’s WorldTour rankings within just 18 months of her comeback before making history as the first female winner the Queen of the Classics. This remarkable feat served as an inspiration to her fellow competitors, and to even more women outside of the sport.
In 2022, the 36-year-old missed the racing season to welcome her son, Shea, before returning for a second time in 2023 to compete with the Team.
Cycling is totally underestimated as a team sport, right? I grew up in cycling and I’ve seen this massive shift that I’m so proud to be a part of, but the basics are the same. You start as a domestique, you work your way up, you become a leader. Often people say, ‘Retire on the top.’ But I have no ego or necessity to retire at the top. I’m really happy to go full circle and to have ended my career as somebody that helps other people win bike races again.
I have this life outside of cycling that gives me so much fulfillment and so much love.
