Lizzie Deignan

Elizabeth Mary Deignan (née Armitstead; born 18 December 1988) is an English professional world champion track and road racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam.

She took up cycling in 2004 after British Cycling's Olympic Talent Team visited the school.

She is a graduate of British Cycling's Olympic Podium Programme.

Deignan won a silver medal in the scratch race at the Junior World Track Championships in 2005, she was under-23 European Scratch Race Champion in 2007 and 2008, and came second in the Points Race in 2007.

In the 2008–09 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics, she took a total of seven gold medals after competing in three of the five meetings.

Alongside her breakthrough in the velodrome, Deignan was also making progress in road racing: in 2008 she was part of the team which delivered Nicole Cooke to the road race gold at the World Championships in Varese, Italy, and the following year she joined the cycling team and rode a number of top level road races.

She won the under 23 category of the British National Road Race Championships and the silver medal in the senior category after some controversy.

That season she also took a stage of the Tour de l'Ardèche and won the youth classification of the Giro d'Italia.

Prior to her road career, Deignan won a total of five medals at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in 2009 and 2010, including a gold medal in team pursuit in 2009 with Joanna Rowsell and Wendy Houvenaghel.

Deignan was born in the market town of Otley in West Yorkshire, where she attended Prince Henry's Grammar School, a state comprehensive school.

Deignan was a member of the gold medal-winning team pursuit squad at the 2009 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, her second appearance at a senior world championship event.

She also competed in the scratch race, where despite being brought down in the closing stages of the race, she jumped back on to claim the silver medal.

She completed the championships with a full set of medals, winning bronze in the points race whilst riding with her right wrist numb and strapped up – she was only able to move her forefinger and thumb.

During the winter of 2009–10, Deignan returned to the track, taking two golds at the Manchester round of the 2009–10 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics and two silvers at the 2010 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.

In 2010, she rode for.

That year she won three more stages of the Tour de l'Ardèche and a silver medal in the road race at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

She has won the British National Road Race Championships four times, in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017.

In 2021, Deignan won the first ever Paris–Roubaix Femmes to add to victories in the women's versions of Tour of Flanders and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, becoming the first woman to win a 'triple crown' of all women's Monument classics.

Twice winner of The Women's Tour, the most important stage race for women in the UK, she has also won Strade Bianche Donne, La Course by Le Tour de France and the Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio.

Deignan decided to stay with the franchise in its new guise as throughout 2011.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Deignan won the silver medal in the road race.

Following the discontinuation of the women's team, Deignan rode for the team in 2012.

Deignan built the whole of her campaign around the 2012 Summer Olympics, taking spring classics wins at the Omloop van het Hageland and Gent–Wevelgem: at the Games themselves, she would go on to win the silver medal in the road race at the Olympics, behind Marianne Vos, in so becoming the first Briton to win a medal at the 2012 Games.

Having had to move teams in the past two seasons due to teams disbanding, Deignan signed for the team for the 2013 season.

Her 2013 season was affected by a recurring stomach illness which was eventually diagnosed as a symptom of a hiatal hernia.

Even with her well documented medical concerns, Deignan emerged victorious at the British National Road Race Championships in Glasgow – claiming her second white, red and blue jersey.

Deignan is also the 2014 Commonwealth Games road race champion and a twice winner of the season-long UCI Women's Road World Cup, winning the overall competition in 2014 and the final edition in 2015.

In April 2014 it was announced that Deignan had renewed her contract with until the end of 2016.

Deignan enjoyed a career-best year, starting with a win at the Omloop van het Hageland.

A week later she also won the first World Cup race of the season, the Ronde van Drenthe, after teammate Ellen van Dijk closed a significant gap for her in the final kilometres of the race.

At the third World Cup race, the Tour of Flanders, she finished second behind van Dijk.

Deignan took part in the inaugural La Course by Le Tour de France in Paris on 27 July 2014, but crashed with 1 km to the finish.

A week later she won the women's road race at the Commonwealth Games.

Armitstead, overhauled Emma Pooley with 7 km to go to win her first major gold medal.

Deignan won the UCI Women's Road World Cup with a race to spare on 24 August 2014.

An 8th-place finish in the Open de Suède Vårgårda was enough to secure the overall title.

She was the 2015 World road race champion.

For the 2015 season, Deignan stated again her intention to build towards the UCI Road World Championships.

She claimed the first overall win of her career taking the Ladies Tour of Qatar stage race, as well as winning two stages.

Deignan then went on to take victories at the one day World Cup races Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio and Philadelphia Cycling Classic, along with the Holland Hills Classic.