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 allow her to 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 won 43 professional road races during her career across 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.”
Deignan made an appearance at Rouleur Live on November 15 where she explained her decision behind racing for only one more season, as opposed to signing a multi-year extension.
"It's been a sacrifice and I had to consider if I wanted to do that anymore," Deignan said to members of the press, confirming that she had only made the decision this year. "Not forever, I've got another year and then I will turn the page. The opportunity to do one more season, where it is not an Olympic year, and I don't have personal ambitions, I really want to empower and motivate the younger women on the team."
Deignan also shared her thoughts on a social media clip from an interview with BBC Sports, where she said, "All good things come to an end and I'm really proud of the career I've had, and do I feel that I can achieve something in my career that I haven't already achieved? Probably not, if I'm honest with myself. I think the fire and the determination that it takes to be the best in the world is probably running short. I'm happy to be able to stop on my terms."
During her career, Deignan has 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 pregnancy with her first child, and the team offered her their full support. She officially 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.
The UCI had announced that it had added a maternity leave clause, among other securities such as insurance and minimum salaries, to Women's WorldTeam contracts in 2020, but some teams including Trek-Segafredo had already been including these types of provisions in their rider contracts before the UCI's policies.
“I'm 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," Deignan said.
Deignan took a maternity leave during the pregnancy of her second child in 2022, announcing that she would return 2023. She had already joined Marta Bastianelli, Laura Kenny and Elinor Barker to pave the way for future generations of working mothers in world-class sport.
Her season once again began at the Ardennes Classics and La Vuelta Femenina in 2023. She has since rebuilt her form and has played a key role in Lidl-Trek's success, however, a crash at the Tour of Flanders in 2024 forced her to take time away for recovery. She returned to help Elisa Longo Borghini to win the maglia rosa at the Giro d'Italia Women and she represented Great Britain in her fourth career Olympic Games in Paris.
“Cycling is totally underestimated as a team sport, right? I grew up in cycling and I've seen this massive shift that I'm so proud to be a part of, but the basics are the same. You start as a domestique, you work your way up, you become a leader. 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," Deignan said.
