Lizzie Deignan announced that she will officially retire from professional cycling at the end of 2025. The British rider will compete in her last racing season with Lidl-Trek, after agreeing to a one-year contract extension that will focus on guiding and mentoring the next generation of cycling talent.
“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 be somebody that helps other people win bike races again,” said Deignan, who revealed that she had initially intended to retire at the end of 2024.
“The reason I initially wanted to retire was because I no longer have the motivation for my own results. They spoke to me and offered me a contract in the vein of being a road captain and somebody that can mentor the younger riders coming through. That kind of sparked a bit of motivation in me and I thought, yeah, actually that’s something that I am really motivated by. I really enjoy bringing out the best in the people around me. I still love cycling.”
Deignan has secured 43 professional road victories during her career which spanned 19 seasons since beginning in 2007 with Global Racing Team. She won the elite women’s world title at the UCI Road World Championships in Richmond in 2015, a Commonwealth title in 2014, and multiple national champion titles. She secured the silver medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
On the Women’s WorldTour, Deignan is the only rider to have won all three Monuments offered to the women’s peloton securing victories at Tour of Flanders in 2016, Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2020 and the inaugural Paris-Roubaix Femmes in 2021. She has also won Strade Bianche, Ronde van Drenthe, twice Trofeo Alfredo Binda, three times GP Plouay and three overall titles at the Women’s Tour of Britain.
In her new mentorship role in 2025, Deignan said she would be working with the team’s incoming talent on the team in some of the biggest races on the calendar. While the team has four new signings they are already experienced professionals; Niamh Fisher-Black from SD Worx-Protime, Anna Henderson and Riejanne Markus from Visma-Lease a Bike and Emma Norsgaard from Movistar.
However, the team has signed younger riders in the previous two seasons including twin sisters Ava and Isabella Holmgren (19), Fleur Moors (19), Felicity Wilson-Haffenden (19), and Izzy Sharpe (19).
“I’ll be using my experience to help them understand how to deal with pressure in the big races,” she said. “I think more and more in cycling it’s all about marginal gains and sometimes the basics are forgotten. I’ll be there to remind them of the basics, the feelings, the instincts and all the human side of it.”
During Deignan’s career, she raced with Lotto Belisol, Cervelo Test Team and AA Drink-LeontienNL before spending five seasons with Boels Dolmans (now SD Worx-Protime) from 2013 to 2018. She signed a contract with Trek-Segafredo in 2018 during her first pregnancy, and the team offered her their full support. She joined the roster at the launch of the women’s team in 2019 as one of their first hires.
Deignan returned to racing at the Ardennes Classics in 2019 and took aim at the World Championships in Yorkshire and then suggested the possibility of closing out her cycling career at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020. However, she postponed her retirement and confirmed that she was not yet ready to end her career, and went on to become the first woman to win Paris-Roubaix, and was crowned ‘queen of the classics’ in 2021.
More to follow…
