This is your first season back since the birth of your second child. How are feeling?
The past seven months have had their own challenges but life is good and both our children are happy and healthy. The balance with cycling is actually better than I imagined. Starting racing again has been a bit of a shock to the system and it has been a tough road back to fitness, but the Vuelta went well and I’m starting to feel a bit of form and feel stronger, which is exciting.
Is it weird always being asked questions about having a family?
I understand the reasons behind the questions about balancing motherhood and being a rider, because physically I’m still in that postpartum period so there are interesting questions about how I’ve managed that and how that works. But it’s also interesting that a pro cyclist who is a father isn’t asked about it as much, whereas I constantly am.
Parenthood is a balancing act for mothers and fathers so it should be an open conversation. It’s brilliant that I have maternity leave but there is no protection for a man. He has to decide whether to stay home rather than go to a bike race, or to perhaps miss the birth of his child. To me, it’s crazy and unbelievable that no man has ever said, ‘Hang on a minute, where’s my paternity leave?’
As long as we’re only talking about maternity leave, we’re only discussing childcare as a priority of women rather than for men too. I think above all, it’s important we see athletes as human beings and not just robots who are there to perform constantly.
You’re from Otley in Yorkshire, near to where Beryl Burton was from. Has she been an inspiration?
My grandma used to work in the same school with Beryl Burton, and she would recall that Beryl used to cycle to work pregnant and how everyone thought it was so strange. But I also remember that when I announced my pregnancy to my family, my grandma was one of the first to ask me when I would go back to cycling. It was never a question of whether I would retire.
I’ve been very lucky to be surrounded by a family who think it’s totally normal for me to go back to work. Times have changed a little bit between my era and Beryl’s – she was a much harder woman than I am.
How do you feel about riding the Tour de France this year given that you missed last year’s through pregnancy?
I’m really excited about it. That’s one of the reasons why the decision to retire keeps getting put off – there are so many more opportunities and to be able to compete in the Tour de France is not something I would like to miss.
Should the women’s Tour be the same length as the men’s?
Physically, we are able to ride for three weeks straight but we also have to make sure that the changes that happen are sustainable, and they are in line with where women’s cycling is at.
Currently, our calendar is getting fuller and fuller. We have 15 riders on the team – we don’t have 30 like the men’s team, where they have a specific roster for the Classics and Grand Tours. At the moment the top tier of women riders is expected to perform at the Classics, then straight into the Vuelta, Ride London and so on. We aren’t at a point where we have enough strength in depth to field a Grand Tour team.
I think it’s really important we have minimum salaries in the WorldTour so that in the next five years we’ll have enough riders to choose from to specialise and to sustain that growth. It shouldn’t be seen too negatively that the Tour is eight days – it’s better than nothing and I envisage it will grow. Of course we have to push for more each year but step-by-step is not always a negative thing.
Last season your Trek-Segafredo [now Lidl-Trek] team finished second behind SD Worx with 33 wins, whereas the Trek men could only notch up 19 wins and come 12th. Is there a big rivalry between the men’s and women’s team?
There’s definitely a bit of rivalry but we do also lift each other up. It’s very much like we’re one team. All of our resources are swapped and changed between the teams, we rotate staff, and senior management and the coaching strategies are available to all of us. You do feel that when one team is winning, it pushes the other team to win and it’s a healthy rivalry.
What are you thinking about when you are racing?
I couldn’t tell you. I get tunnel vision and go into race mode. I suppose coming back from maternity leave, there are questions marks in my head like, ‘Will I still have it?’ or ‘Will I still be able to compartmentalise my brain to not think about the kids?’ But once there’s a number on my back I’m a very different person to the person around the dinner table the night before.
You’ve said before that you need more than just cycling in your life. Do you think this approach has helped you have a long and successful career?
There was a time prior to being World Champion when I was hyper-focussed. But what I was doing wasn’t sustainable because there’s no point being dominant in races if you have no one to celebrate with when you get home afterwards.
It feels like an admission as a professional athlete to say I have another life, because the expectation is that you should be all-in with cycling. There’s an assumption that this will create a better performance but it’s not always the case. I’m performing just as well now. I might not be winning as much but that’s because the peloton has changed. It’s harder to win races now, but physically I’m as strong as ever.
Would you want your children to follow your footsteps?
I can’t imagine anything worse than watching your own child suffering in a bike race. But I’m incredibly grateful that I make a living from my passion, from riding my bike, and I think if our children want to do the same, then that’s brilliant. If you can make a living from something that you’re passionate about, you can’t ask for more than that.
Thanks to Cycleplan for linking us up with Lizzie. Cycleplan offers specialist cycling insurance to cyclists in the UK.