Lizzie Deignan has announced her immediate retirement from professional cycling following the news that she is expecting her third child with husband and fellow cyclist Phil Deignan.
The 36-year-old had previously said that 2025 would be her final season, but the joyful news has prompted her to bring that forward. Deignan leaves the sport as one of the most decorated and influential riders of her generation, with more than 40 professional victories across the most prestigious races in the womenโs calendar.
โI have this life outside of cycling that gives me so much fulfilment and so much love,โ Deignan said. โIโm 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.โ
Her palmarรจs is staggering: world champion in 2015, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist in 2014, silver medallist at the London 2012 Olympics, and winner of Paris-Roubaix, Liรจge-Bastogne-Liรจge, Strade Bianche and the Ronde van Vlaanderen.
But her impact went far beyond the results sheet. Deignan was a trailblazer in the push for professionalism in womenโs cycling, a respected leader within the peloton, and a powerful example of how motherhood and elite sport can coexist. She was among the first to return to the WorldTour after giving birth in 2018, winning The Womenโs Tour the following season and topping the UCI Womenโs WorldTour rankings less than two years later.
In 2021, she made history as the first-ever winner of Paris-Roubaix Femmes, riding solo into the Roubaix Velodrome in one of the sportโs most iconic performances.
โCycling is totally underestimated as a team sport, right? I grew up in cycling and Iโve seen this massive shift that Iโm so proud to be a part of, but the basics are the same,โ she reflected. โYou start as a domestique, you work your way up, you become a leader. Often people say, โRetire on the top.โ But I have no ego or necessity to retire at the top. Iโm really happy to go full circle and to have ended my career as somebody that helps other people win bike races again.โ
After missing the 2022 season for the birth of her son Shea, Deignan returned once more in 2023 and signed off this May with one final victory – helping Lidl-Trek to a team time trial win on stage 1 of the Vuelta Espaรฑa Femenina.
Deignanโs influence will long outlast her racing career, with her leadership, advocacy, and commitment to balancing sport and family setting a new standard for the generations that follow.