# Lizzie Deignan

Elizabeth Mary Deignan MBE (née Armitstead; born 18 December 1988) is an English professional world champion track and road racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Lidl–Trek. She was the 2015 World road race champion.
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. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Deignan won the silver medal in the road race. 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.
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.

## Early life

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

## Career
### 2005–2009: Track years

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.
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.

### 2009–2011: Move to road

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 Lotto–Belisol Ladiesteam 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. 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 Cervélo TestTeam. 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. Deignan decided to stay with the franchise in its new guise as Garmin–Cervélo throughout 2011.

### 2012

Following the discontinuation of the Garmin–Cervélo women's team, Deignan rode for the AA Drink–leontien.nl 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.

### 2013

Having had to move teams in the past two seasons due to teams disbanding, Deignan signed for the Boels–Dolmans 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.

### 2014

In April 2014 it was announced that Deignan had renewed her contract with Boels–Dolmans 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 kilometre (0.62 miles) to the finish. A week later she won the women's road race at the Commonwealth Games. Armitstead, overhauled Emma Pooley with 7 kilometres (4.3 miles) 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.

### 2015

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.
In June, Deignan was forced to pull out of The Women's Tour after colliding with a group of photographers seconds after winning the first stage of the tour in Suffolk. However, ten days later she had recovered sufficiently to win convincingly the British National Road Race Championships for the third time taking her to the top of the UCI world rankings. In August, she sprinted to victory in the final World Cup race of the season, the GP de Plouay, to retain her World Cup title ahead of her main challenger, Anna van der Breggen.
To cap her best season to date, on 26 September, Deignan won the World Championships road race in Richmond, Virginia, USA, beating van der Breggen in a sprint from a small group of nine riders at the finish line, becoming the fourth British woman to win the world road race title after Beryl Burton, Mandy Jones and Nicole Cooke.

### 2016

Deignan's stated aim for the 2016 season was the road race at the Olympic Games, and she started the season as she had finished off the previous one, securing a number of one day race wins, as well as a General classification victory, breaking any curse of the rainbow jersey. Deignan took four victories in the inaugural UCI Women's World Tour; Strade Bianche, Trofeo Alfredo Binda, Tour of Flanders and the overall title at The Women's Tour. Deignan also took victories in the Holland Hills Classic and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. At the Games, she finished just outside the medals in fifth place.

#### Missed drugs tests

In 2016, Deignan avoided a ban from cycling that would have prevented her from competing in the Olympic Games. The charges against her were that she missed three drugs tests within a 12-month period (20 August 2015, 5 October 2015 and 9 June 2016), an offence that could have led to a four-year ban. However, at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Deignan argued that the first missed test was not a fault of her own but rather that of the testing authorities. She accepted the other two instances. The CAS agreed with her on the first count, and it was declared not to have been a missed test, clearing her to compete. The decision has drawn criticism from various quarters.
In a 5 August 2016 interview, she said she believes that people will doubt her status as a clean sportsperson forever. World squash champion James Willstrop wrote in defence of Deignan, arguing that the complexity of testing procedures can easily lead to missed tests and noting that she had 16 clean tests in 2016.

### 2017

Deignan endured a difficult start to her 2017 season: after finishing third at Strade Bianche, she fell ill, which hampered her training. However, her form picked up for the Ardennes classics, finishing second to team-mate van der Breggen in the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne Féminine and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. She subsequently took her first win of the season on home ground at the Tour de Yorkshire in April, crossing the line solo almost a minute ahead of her nearest rivals. She took another solo win at the British National Championships on the Isle of Man in June, attacking from a small group with two laps of the 6.7-kilometre (4.2-mile) finishing circuit remaining alongside Katie Archibald and Hannah Barnes: the trio caught and passed race leader Elinor Barker with 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) to go, with Deignan breaking away immediately afterwards to take her fourth senior national road race title.
The following month she finished second at La Course by Le Tour de France, finishing behind winner Annemiek van Vleuten on the Col d'Izoard: she stated that she was "surprised" by her performance, having never enjoyed success on a mountaintop finish before. In August she took her first World Tour win of the season at the GP de Plouay – Bretagne, breaking away from rivals alongside Pauline Ferrand-Prévot on the final climb, before outsprinting Ferrand-Prévot to cross the finish line first. She became the third woman to win the race twice, alongside Vos and Pooley. However, the remainder of her season was disrupted shortly afterwards after being struck with appendicitis whilst competing in the Holland Ladies Tour.

### 2021

Deignan was chosen to be part of the UK's cycling squad at the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics where she contested the road race with Anna Shackley as a teammate. The race finished with an unexpected winner in Anna Kiesenhofer of Austria, with Deignan finding the conditions humid and difficult. She finished 11th in the race.
In early October she went on to win the Paris–Roubaix Femmes with a solo breakaway of more than 80 kilometres (50 miles), a victory described by commentators as one of the greatest Roubaix rides of all time. Deignan therefore became the first woman to win a 'triple crown' of all women's Monument classics, having won the 2016 Tour of Flanders for Women, and the 2020 Liège–Bastogne–Liège Femmes.

### 2022

In February, Deignan announced that she would sit out the 2022 season, as she was pregnant with her second child. She also announced she had signed a contract extension with Trek–Segafredo to return to racing in 2023.

### 2024

In June, Deignan won the Mountains classification in the Tour of Britain Women having held the position from stage one to the end of the four-day race.
She was selected to represent Great Britain at the Paris Olympics, finishing 12th in what was her fourth Games appearance.
On 15 November, Deignan announced she would retire at the end of the 2025 season.

## Personal life

She married fellow professional road racing cyclist Philip Deignan in Otley on 17 September 2016. The couple have two children: a daughter, born in September 2018, and a son, born in September 2022.
She splits her time between Otley and Monaco. Deignan has been a pescetarian for ethical reasons since the age of ten.

## Career achievements
### Major results
#### Road

Source:

##### 2006

    1st National Criterium Championships
    1st WCRA Criterium Championships

##### 2007

    1st National Criterium Championships
    5th Omloop van Borsele
    6th Road race, UEC European Under-23 Championships
    9th Omloop door Middag-Humsterland

##### 2008 (1 pro win)

    1st Boezinge–Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen

##### 2009 (1)

    1st Road race, National Under-23 Championships
    1st Young rider classification, Giro d'Italia
    2nd Road race, National Championships
    3rd Overall Tour de l'Ardèche
       1st Points classification
       1st Stage 6
    8th Omloop van Borsele
    8th Chrono Champenois
    9th Tour de Berne

##### 2010 (5)

    1st Road race, National Under-23 Championships
    1st Stage 1 Tour de l'Aude
    2nd Road race, Commonwealth Games
    2nd Road race, National Championships
    4th Overall La Route de France
       1st Stage 6
    4th Overall Tour de l'Ardèche
       1st Points classification
       1st Stages 3, 4 & 5
    5th Emakumeen Saria
    7th Overall Ster Zeeuwsche Eilanden
    7th Grand Prix Elsy Jacobs
    9th Road race, UCI World Championships

##### 2011 (3)

    1st Road race, National Championships
    Thüringen Rundfahrt
       1st Points classification
       1st Stage 6
    1st Stage 1 Tour of Chongming Island
    2nd Tour of Chongming Island World Cup
    3rd Open de Suède Vårgårda TTT
    4th Omloop van Borsele
    6th GP Ciudad de Valladolid
    7th Road race, UCI World Championships
    7th GP Stad Roeselare
    10th Ronde van Drenthe

##### 2012 (1)

    1st Omloop van het Hageland
    1st Gent–Wevelgem
    Olympic Games
       2nd Road race
       10th Time trial
    2nd Road race, National Championships
    3rd Novilon Euregio Cup
    4th Overall Thüringen Rundfahrt
    4th Gooik–Geraardsbergen–Gooik
    4th Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria
    6th Overall Ster Zeeuwsche Eilanden
    8th GP Stad Roeselare
    10th Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

##### 2013 (1)

    National Championships
       1st Road race
       2nd Time trial
    2nd Holland Hills Classic
    2nd Ridderronde Maastricht
    3rd Overall Holland Ladies Tour
       1st Sprints classification
       1st Combination classification
    6th Overall La Route de France
    7th Overall Energiewacht Tour
       Combativity award, Stage 2
    7th Ronde van Drenthe
    9th Tour of Flanders

##### 2014 (4)

    1st Overall UCI World Cup
    1st Road race, Commonwealth Games
    1st Omloop van het Hageland
    1st Ronde van Drenthe
    1st Otley Grand Prix
    2nd Overall Thüringen Rundfahrt
       1st Points classification
       1st Mountains classification
       1st Stage 1
    2nd Trofeo Alfredo Binda
    2nd Tour of Flanders
    2nd La Flèche Wallonne
    2nd Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria
    3rd Road race, National Championships
    3rd Drentse 8
    3rd Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
    3rd RideLondon Grand Prix
    3rd Open de Suède Vårgårda TTT
    7th Road race, UCI World Championships
    8th Open de Suède Vårgårda
    8th GP de Plouay

##### 2015 (10)

    UCI World Championships
       1st Road race
       2nd Team time trial
    1st Overall UCI World Cup
    1st Road race, National Championships
    1st Overall Tour of Qatar
       1st Points classification
       1st Stages 3 & 4
    1st Trofeo Alfredo Binda
    1st Holland Hills Classic
    1st Philadelphia Cycling Classic
    1st GP de Plouay
    1st Stage 1 The Women's Tour
    2nd Strade Bianche
    3rd Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
    3rd Crescent Vårgårda TTT
    4th La Course by Le Tour de France
    7th Ronde van Drenthe
    8th Tour of Flanders

##### 2016 (7)

    UCI World Championships
       1st Team time trial
       4th Road race
    1st Overall The Women's Tour
       1st British rider classification
       1st Stage 3
    1st Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
    1st Strade Bianche
    1st Trofeo Alfredo Binda
    1st Tour of Flanders
    1st Holland Hills Classic
    1st Crescent Vårgårda TTT
    1st Stage 2 (TTT) Holland Ladies Tour
    5th Road race, Olympic Games

##### 2017 (3)

    1st Road race, National Championships
    1st Tour de Yorkshire
    1st GP de Plouay
    1st Stage 1 (TTT) Giro Rosa
    2nd La Course by Le Tour de France
    2nd Amstel Gold Race
    2nd La Flèche Wallonne
    2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    3rd Strade Bianche

##### 2019 (2)

    1st Overall The Women's Tour
       1st Points classification
       1st British rider classification
       1st Stage 5
    7th Overall Holland Ladies Tour
    7th Liège–Bastogne–Liège

##### 2020 (3)

    1st Overall UCI World Tour
    1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    1st GP de Plouay
    1st La Course by Le Tour de France
    1st Stage 1 (TTT) Giro Rosa
    4th La Flèche Wallonne
    6th Road race, UCI World Championships
    8th Gent–Wevelgem
    9th Emakumeen Nafarroako Klasikoa

##### 2021 (2)

    1st Overall Tour de Suisse
       1st Points classification
       1st Mountains classification
    1st Paris–Roubaix
    4th Overall Giro Rosa
       1st Stage 1 (TTT)
    7th GP de Plouay
    9th Overall Thüringen Ladies Tour
    9th La Course by Le Tour de France

##### 2023

    3rd Overall RideLondon Classique
    6th Road race, UCI World Championships

##### 2024

    1st Stage 1 (TTT) La Vuelta Femenina
    3rd Road race, National Championships
    7th Overall Tour of Britain
       1st Mountains classification

##### Classics results timeline

| Classic | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Omloop Het Nieuwsblad | — | — | — | 10 | 36 | 3 | 3 | 1 | — | — | — | — | 111 | — | — | 44 |
| Strade Bianche | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | 2 | 1 | 3 | — | — | 37 | — | — | — | 27 |
| Ronde van Drenthe | — | — | 10 | 17 | 7 | 1 | 7 | DNF | — | — | — | NH | — | — | — | — |
| Trofeo Alfredo Binda | — | — | — | — | DNF | 2 | 1 | 1 | 39 | — | — | NH | 12 | — | — | DNF |
| Gent–Wevelgem | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | 1 | — | — | — | 17 | — | — | — | 8 | 17 | — | — | — |
| Tour of Flanders | — | — | — | 34 | 9 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 17 | — | — | DNF | 18 | — | — | DNF |
| Paris–Roubaix | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | NH | 1 | — | — | — |
| Amstel Gold Race | Not held | Not held | Not held | Not held | Not held | Not held | Not held | Not held | 2 | — | 19 | NH | — | — | — | — |
| La Flèche Wallonne | 22 | — | 47 | — | 12 | 2 | 21 | 28 | 2 | — | 23 | 4 | — | — | 88 | — |
| Liège–Bastogne–Liège | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | Race did not exist | 2 | — | 7 | 1 | — | — | 63 | — |
| GP de Plouay | 20 | 49 | 71 | — | 24 | 8 | 1 | 66 | 1 | — | — | 1 | 7 | — | — | 83 |
| Open de Suède Vårgårda | — | — | 14 | — | DNF | 8 | 19 | 62 | 35 | — | 46 | Not held | Not held | — | Not held | Not held |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |
| IP | In progress |
| NH | Not held |

#### Track
##### 2005

    National Junior Championships
       1st Points race
       2nd 500m time trial
       3rd Scratch
    2nd Scratch, UCI World Junior Championships

##### 2006

    2nd Scratch, National Championships
    National Junior Championships
       2nd Points race
       2nd Individual pursuit
       3rd Scratch
       3rd 500m time trial

##### 2007

    UEC European Under-23 Championships
       1st Scratch
       2nd Points race

##### 2008

    UEC European Under-23 Championships
       1st Scratch
       1st Team pursuit
       2nd Points race
    UCI World Cup Classics
       1st Points race, Manchester
       1st Scratch, Manchester
       1st Team pursuit, Manchester
       1st Scratch, Melbourne
       1st Team pursuit, Melbourne

##### 2009

    UCI World Championships
       1st Team pursuit
       2nd Scratch
       3rd Points race
    2008–09 UCI World Cup Classics, Copenhagen
       1st Scratch
       1st Team pursuit
    2009–10 UCI World Cup Classics, Manchester
       1st Team pursuit
       1st Points race

##### 2010

    UCI World Championships
       2nd Team pursuit
       2nd Omnium

##### 2011

    National Championships
       1st Points race
       1st Scratch

##### 2015

    Revolution Series
       1st Points race, Manchester
       1st Points race, Glasgow
       3rd Scratch, Glasgow

### Awards and honours

In 2015, Deignan was nominated for the 2015 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, following her world championship victory; she finished tenth, with approximately 22,000 of the 1.009 million votes cast.
In December 2022, Deignan was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to cycling.