Lizzie Armitstead interview
CNO Cycling had the unique opportunity to speak to the
current World Champion Lizzie Armitstead after she made a brave attempt to win
the Women’s Tour de Yorkshire.
It’s not often that you get the chance to speak with a
current World Champion, so we took advantage by asking Lizzie about life in the
Women’s peloton, the changing attitudes to Women’s cycling and the highlight of
her career by winning the World’s in Richmond Virginia last year.
In what has been perhaps the most tumultuous time in British
Cycling in living memory, with accusations of sexism, it
was great to get Lizzie’s take on the world of Women’s cycling and her hopes
for the future.
With Rio just around the corner, this is without doubt
Lizzie's greatest ambition for the year, we are sure that everyone will wish
her all of the support to ensure we see a golden return......
We started by asking Lizzie how she got into Cycling, particularly
at a time when Cycling was not as high profile as it is now. Lizzie told us how
British Cycling had come into her school as part of a talent identification
scheme and immediately spotted just how good she could be..
"I was talent spotted at school at the age of 15 by
British Cycling when they visited with some bikes as part of a talent ID
programme. They were looking for young people with potential and I was chosen.
I was given some lottery funding and a coach, joined the Academy programme and went
from there"
We have seen ourselves from a very local level, the impact
British Cycling can have on local schools, it clearly worked very well for
Lizzie, so hopefully the need to continue to identify new talent remains a
priority of British Cycling.
Whilst we love to see Lizzie winning on the Road, her
background involved Track Cycling, as so many British Cyclists did. Many people
possibly fail to remember she was an integral part of the World Championship
winning pursuit squad from 2009. Did she prefer the Road or the track..?
"Definitely road racing! Road cycling has a rich
history and there are so many iconic races on the calendar. I love the
combination of physical ability and tactical decisions. Plus I get to ride and
train in different and beautiful places outside every day.
The real highlight of Lizzie's career so far, is without
doubt, her fantastic victory in the World Championships on September 26th last
year, when she gloriously brought home the world title for Britain. We asked
Lizzie about the race and how she planned such a meticulous victory.
"The race in
Richmond went exactly to plan, I was a little disappointed when I first saw the
course as I was worried that it was not challenging enough. I knew I had to
race aggressively to make the race suit me and I planned to attack in all the
places I attacked. I trained several days on the course and did 3 attacks over
every climb at the finish followed by a sprint – in the end that is also how I
won the race"
Another key moment in the ever advancing career of Lizzie
came on the 3rd of April this year. Lizzie had tried several times to win the
Tour Of Flanders and had previously come 2nd in 2014, this year she finally
cracked it.
"The Tour of Flanders was one of the key races I wanted
to win this year – it is an iconic race and it is a dream come true to have won
it in my World Championships Jersey."
All of these remarkable acheivements have taken place whilst
Lizzie has been wearing the colours of Boels-Dolmans. We asked her whether she felt
the set up at the team was integral to her success.
"I really enjoy riding for Boels Dolmans – we are a
well balanced team, full of different characters and cultures. The team really
motivate me as they are an incredibly strong, inspiring and professional group
of women – we race and train incredibly hard as a team."
With the Olympics in Rio in the not too distant future, we asked Lizzie whether she felt this would
trigger a turn to stage racing, possibly with the Giro Rosa being a
particularly highlighted point.
"I will continue to concentrate on the Classics.
Cycling can be such a difficult sport that I really believe you have to chase
the races that you are passionate about winning, not the races people expect
you to win. I have always dreamed about winning the Tour of Flanders, but I
have never dreamt about winning the Giro Rosa. I love the all or nothing aspect
of a Classic."
"I am, however, concentrating on my climbing this year.
I was lucky enough to recce the Rio course last August and it’s brutal. It’s a
real climbers course, the last climb in particular is 8km and average 8%."
We then moved to discussing with Lizzie the changing
attitudes to Women's cycling, quite a relevant question in cycling's current climate.
"I think there are definitely steps in the right
direction. It is a massive commitment from the organisers of Tour de Yorkshire
to put up the level of prize money. I’m proud that a ‘blueprint’ of how a race
should be organised has started at home in Yorkshire. Hopefully it sets a
precedent for organisers in the future"
CNO Cycling certainly agree with that, What a terrible shame
it was that the plan ASO and Gary Verity had put in place to televise the Tour
De Yorkshire was so cruelly taken away by a 'technical' error. This really
spoiled a huge opportunity for the ladies to show their talent to a wider
demographic of people, live on British Television and across Europe.
