LIZZIE DEIGNAN CHAT & RIDE | INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

I feel honoured to have been able to speak to Lizzie, she’s so inspiring to listen to and I hope her words of wisdom will help others to have the confidence to give cycling a go. As you can tell I was in ore the whole time! Most importantly the message is for ~ women to inspire other women & cycle in the way that works for you.

Special thanks to Phil for giving my bike a quick wash, we can forgive you for interrupting now!

Massive thank you to Santini and Santini UK for organising this ride & for gifting me my kit.

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*I am wearing gifted Santini kit in this video

Hello everybody I’m super excited today is video number two of my three-part series for international Women’s Day celebrating all the ladies today I’m really really excited my dreams are coming true I’m meeting the one the only Lizzie digan I can’t quite contain myself to be honest I’m going to have to

Try and be calm um thank you so much to Santini for making this happen really really I’m just yeah over the moon um Lizzy is such an inspirational amazing female cyclist she’s been world champion she has won medals at the Olympic Games she’s got an NBA

And the first time that pyet was ran for women she went and won it so I’m definitely going to get some tips from her for that because I’m doing the py ru sportive soon I’m a little bit nervous but anyway I’m going to stop waffling

Going to get in the car we’re going to go and meet her let’s go we are in Liz’s kitchen which is being renovated so we to get an apology from Lizzie but we didn’t need an apology for that should see the state of mar and Kyle’s house um

So we’re just going to have a little chat um the reason we’re doing this is to celebrate International women’s day which is really important and obviously women in sport is getting bigger which is really good but I think there’s still a long way to go as a female cyclist

Starting from when you first started to now what difference have you sort of noticed in women’s cycling so much I mean it’s transformed from when I on both levels like Grassroots levels and also professional so when I first started for instance I signed my first professional contract

For €200 a month wow and afford to live off that uh I had to win bik graes and win prize money and luckily my parents supported me a little bit and um yeah but now you know in professional sport we have a minimum wage now so women are protected

They can completely um focus on their Sport and for that reason the development in women cycling in the last five years has shot up because you have women who are actually full-time professional athletes so the strength and depth in the pellaton is getting stronger which is great yeah um it’s

Good to watch as well it’s good for us watching home yeah and then like from a Grassroots level I mean you know when I was training when I was a 15-year-old around here I was kind of following groups of men in yellow lier and now

It’s a cool spot and now there are women groups out you know there’s not a bike ride that I go on and I don’t see another woman I think social media is been brilliant for us but because um any inequality now is called out very quickly yeah there’s no Hiding Place

Organizations are held to account by yeah social media and the public um I think obviously Society we’re still a way off as well we’re still a way off in sport but we’re getting there in cycle in particularly the change in the last 10 years has been dramatic so I think

It’s important now that the next steps are sustainable that we don’t just jump too far ahead of ourselves um and yeah just keep just keep on pushing like we can’t can’t rest there’s still work to be done and and I think the most important thing is that women

And power other women definitely what would you say is your biggest and sort of proudest achievement within your cycling so far you’ve been like world champion and you’ve won medals at the Olympics and all sorts but when did you get that feeling of I feel really proud

Of myself for this do you know it’s probably more like general just the longevity of my career you know I’ve I’ve been at the top of my game now for the last like 15 years and and that’s really hard because cycling is a really tough Sport and there are more Downs

Than UPS actually so like I’m proud of my perseverance and my mentality you have to be determined don’t you I mean I see that when I’m on a long ride I have to be determined sometimes when it’s raining and windy and keeping going so I

Can only imagine how it must be for you having to have it as your job and have that pressure of it being your income as well as a passion is I think like some some ways I’m fortunate that it’s my job because you know I’ll I’ll train with my

Brother sometimes and be like oh God I can’t believe you’re going out tomorrow and I’ll be like well I’m getting paid to ride you’re not true I have to turn up and put the work in and if I don’t I’m the one who suffers I’m the one who

Doesn’t get a contract or is hanging on in the in a bike race it’s just not worth it like to under underdo it or under Trin it’s just yeah were at the world champions last year and you had a one-year-old which is really impressive so how have you sort of managed to

Balance like becoming a mom as well as being a pro cyclist I’m not balancing it at all not no I would hate for any uh young moms or young parents out there to think that yeah we’re we’re all cushy we’re not like every day is a challenge cycling does take a backseat sometimes

Like the kids do come first you know they need their mom sometimes and that means that the bike has to come second but I’m all right with that I think that has given me the longevity in my career because I do have balance CU I do have

Perspective and um yeah my kids have just G me so much happiness and joy off the bike that I think it enables me to kind of in those tough moments where cycling is a bit much just kind of park it mentally and move on and think about

The kids like often you’ll hear athletes like say I’m doing this for my kids I’m not doing it for my kids they don’t want me to do this I mean I’m doing it to support the family but it is a selfish Pursuit like it’s my dream and and a professional

Athlete has to be selfish at some points and because I’ve got a husband who was a professional athlete um and a father you know that helps some massive amount I was Talent spotted at school when I was 15 so wasn’t inter cycling didn’t own a

Bike wow I was part of all the school sports teams but when they um announced that the Olympics was coming to London British Cy looked at their talent realized they didn’t have enough off uncoming talent and went into schools looking for it and oh wow luckily they

Came to my school luckily I did the test and they said you’ve got potential and from there I was given 500 quid and a bike wow um and to a 15-year-old girl who’s waitressing for £325 an hour yeah I was like oh this sounds like a better

Option so for me it was always like um from the beginning it was like a career Choice it wasn’t a hobby it was like oh okay there’s this pathway from British cycling to the Olympics M and then you were at London and you were silver medal

Yeah in the road race wow it’s mad yeah it’s amazing so hello is that your husband yeah it was life changing completely and they chose your school imagine if they didn’t choose your school and what do you think you would have ended up doing if you didn’t I

Always thoughted going to the police randomly yeah um whether that would have happened I don’t know Phil yeah are you all right to try and be quiet love you want to be on to be try be quiet please you can come and say hi if you want sorry to interrupt

Everybody uh all right I’ll keep the noise women in general in society there’s a lot of pressure on the way our body looks and how we should look and I think when you’re a cyclist there’s even more of that pressure because you have to have your race weight and like you

Have probably having to follow like a certain diet when you’re racing and there’s that pressure so have you ever felt have you ever struggled with that pressure of what your body looks like or having to maintain a certain weight has that been difficult um not really I think I’ve been really fortunate that

I’ve always had a good relationship with food I think probably because I started on the track as a track Rider and I was actually always the smallest and they always wanted me we’ll just ignore that beat we’ll just ignore my H tell your husband off what was he doing the washing or

Something who knows um yeah I was I was a track Rider and was always kind of under pressure to try and be more powerful um so the emphasis for me was to try and gain weight and I was something I always struggled with um and

Then I suppose when I came over to the road cycling it was the first time where I was exposed to people with eating disorders or disordered eating um and yeah I was just I was fortunate that and it didn’t affect me I have always seen food as fuel and performance related um

So yeah yeah I’ve been fortunate but I do see that it is a huge problem but I think it’s in terms of improvement like since when I first started now we have nutritionists on the team we have psychologists on the team so I think the help is there now that

Wasn’t before yeah that’s really good and I think it’s also important to know that it’s not just women that can struggle with that it’s men as well cuz there pressure on them too isn’t abely yeah yeah I mean I’ve you know I’ve seen that on my husband’s cycling teams you

Know it’s not just a female problem I’ve tried a bit of racing and I’m just like it’s not for me I’ve done crit racing I got to cat three and I was like you know what no I much prefer the endurance the solo just on my own cuz for me like the

Risk of crashing and just being my loads of people I’m just like so how do you cope do you have that fear of like the crashing and all of that and what would you say to somebody that wants to start getting into racing what’s nervous about

About it um again luckily I don’t like I just like for me that’s kind of the buzz of like I love the balls of racing I like the elbows out knocking around in the Pelon like that’s kind of why I do it long solo rides sounds horrendous to

Me really see for me that sounds horrendous I’m when you’re on a long solo ride you’re on your own like no one’s going to no it’s no I’m looking at the scenes and like waving to the sheep and all of that um but like I’m not

Fearful cuz no one’s going to crash into me I’m in control of where I’m going and you know but you’ve got no control like if someone goes wrong in front of you you’re just yeah I think I I don’t know it’s personality type isn’t it I need

The adrenaline BS of people around me like for me the biggest struggle is long endurance training RS is it I really really struggle if you want to race then you do have to push yourself out of your comfort zone um but equally like you tried it and you didn’t like it so why

Would you put yourself through that exactly exactly I used to go like me and car be driving I like I don’t want to do this car I don’t know why I’m doing it but in the moment in the race I would enjoy it okay but like it’s just

The before and after wasn’t like whereas for an endurance I’m not driving there thinking oh I don’t want to do it so yeah I just think it’s so important to maintain perspective like and how small you are in the universe and how small and in I know it sounds awful but

Unimportant your performance in a bike race is like exactly even for me as a professional athlete even on the Olympic Games you know it’s one day that we’ll pass in the blink of an eye and to the majority of people has absolutely no significance if I win or lose yeah so

I’d rather you know I always try and hold on to that perspective it’s just a bike race I suppose that’s why I am grateful that I’ve built a life outside of cycling that my whole identity doesn’t rely on me performing in a bike race um that’s not to say that there

Isn’t a place for that like for a lot of professional athletes I was that Rider at one point but um it for my mental health it wasn’t enough and I’ve heard that you love porridge I do love porri because I have I love porridge too so I

Have porridge every morning and so I just wondered what’s your favorite way to have your porridge well not in the microwave at the moment like we’re having we got no kitchen at no we’ve got no kitchen we’re living in a microwave it’s awful no um well to be honest my

Husband makes breakfast does so that’s be the camera you’re slacking you you need to pretend that uh you can’t make coffee as as well oh I don’t drink coffee Weir well I can’t use the machine very well so that gets made mornings are luxury for me oh I cook dinner and lunch

Usually and then breakfast yeah Phil’s in charge of that but our porridge is not just any porridge it’s got coconut oil in it full fat milk armor milk chia seeds Apple uh blueberries peanut butter oh peanut butter I was waiting for that to be said that’s my that sounds I need to

Put my porridge game of it yeah it’s fully loaded porridge like none of this water stuff oh no I like mine with I do like with milk almond milk I do love as well uh peanut butter and banana is nice okay so yeah yeah I’ll give the banana

Banana is nice for peanut butter yeah what else I have called sometimes I put sometimes I put cinnamon in it that’s quite nice cinnamon porridge sometimes a bit of cocoa powder if I want a bit of a chocolate flavor right I’ve heard of that one actually yeah might give that a

Again it’s quite nice let’s say that you’re going to a cafe you’re not training so you’re not like following your diet plan or anything like that you not got what would your go-to drink and Cake be if you’re a cake person well I should say I never follow

A training diet no and particularly if I’m training and i’ eat more so yeah there it’s like a perception that you’re on this like strict plan of like what you can eat and when but is it not like that no oh that’s good no I mean it

Might be for some athletes but not for me know like I I need my calories I’m always looking where I can find them so um if I would stop I would have uh probably a double espresso cuz I don’t like the volume of a big drink then you

Can’t fit in your full cake feel so yeah double espresso and then I like a good British carrot cake oh yes I love carrot cake I also do love Ginger Cake not had ginger cake before haven’t you you’ve never had ginger cake I think

So oh my you need to try ginger cake now you like it if you like carrot cake I think you like ginger cake okay and I do like Flapjack Flap Jack yeah really well you buy a Flap Jack from a cafe if it’s a good homemade one yeah I feel like

That’s sort of like very basic sort of it is quite basic but it’s nice right I I think I need to come to your Cafe Ginger and flap right have you ever tried a chy latte yeah I love them they’re what I have all the time bit bougie isn’t it it’s nice

Though yeah no I like chy lat too if you could only ride in one country for the rest of your life which country would you choose where would you want to ride that is a tough question um I’d say Island but it would have to be summer every day summer Every

Day in Ireland oh I’ve never written in Ireland oh it’s spectacular it’s like Yorkshire but better nice because it’s got the sea so yeah nice I thought you choose somewhere more tropical no I like like the kind of rolling grippy yeah Green scenery yeah yeah I don’t really like

Dry hot weather oh no yeah it’s you so you first be cold on a ride rather than warm yeah absolutely yeah yeah I left W Island to my list too so obviously you did par Ru and you wonn in 2021 and that was the first P Ru for women right and

It started in 1890 I don’t know when 1890 something 125 years before our that’s crazy isn’t it yeah so how did it feel like the first ever women’s one and you won it it was yeah phenomenal experience it was really weird because it was still post pandemic right like in

That time so it was postponed until the October and it was in France and they were very strict on crowd control and stuff so the public weren’t allowed to come and watch so I did this massive race this massive result and you went off solo like you did really good break

Didn’t you yeah it was amazing was phenomenal like the experience but then it was like actually when I left the race and turned my phone on that it hit me how big the result was because yeah in the bubble the co safe bubble it

Was great but not kind of as big as it was on the outside world which was a bit weird yeah you didn’t get that atmosphere in the M that’s a shame me and my husband K are actually doing the py Bas sportive this year um and I’m a

Bit scared about it have you got any tips of what we need to do to survive have been told I should probably wrap my hands is that is that right or it depends see I got a load of stick for not wearing gloves I didn’t wear gloves

But were you hand they were pretty rough yeah they were bleeding and stuff but I think they’d bleed if I wore gloves anyway cuz I don’t wear gloves normally so I didn’t want to just suddenly wear gloves and then have blisters from wearing the gloves I think it’s about

Accepting that you can have rough hands at the end of it like yeah um tire pressure is one like particularly as women um like for instance since the tire pressure gauge that uh pelli our sponsor gave us only went down to 65 kilos right well I’m 58 it was like well

I’m going to have to use less pressure than the safe safe limit so It’s tricky to get tire pressure right but run as low as you feel so to do so so nice flat tires basically basically yeah if you have a bad day it is called the hell of

A North for a reason you are just the problem is your momentum when you’re not when you not got strong good legs you just hit in every stone like bang bang bang whereas if you’re on a good day you kind of you go over them nicely yeah um

So yeah just hope for a good day is all I’ll say fingers crossed for a good day you got anything else on the table for this year and uh yeah the big ones are the Olympic Games in Paris and then the tour to France the week after so there’s

Like a very intense period at the end of July and August yeah that’s going to be tough isn’t it yeah it will be but it’s I like big occasions so like for me that suits me down to the ground like the bigger the occasion usually the bigger the performance so that’s good fingers

Crossed I can live up to my own expectations I suppose it’s EXC I’m looking forward to watching that and yeah I can’t wait to see how well you do and yeah sorry I kept saying that’s the last question but then more questions kept popping into my head also we got

Stu by a tractor on the way here my plan was to go to little on the way and get you some peanut butter and this my favorite peanut but but we got something on the tractor so unfortunately I didn’t bring that for you but I’ll have to post

You some instead yeah well can I just put it out there as well it’s Leal oh sorry got to educate everyone it’s Le oh dear there we go I’m always I’m always pronouncing things wrong people know about that anyway right let’s get on our

Bikes and uh go for a little spin yeah a little spin a Le spin yeah Liz’s putting me to shame with the mug guards on oh you don’t get get very far on a group ride in Yorkshire without mugar don’t you know we always turn up on Club rides

No one has mud guards on so well we’re just ni York must be yeah I love the love the kit thank you yeah very Jazzy yeah I like it it’s safe I mean my room jacket is a bit dark but K’s good people see you see us in the P yes definitely

Stand Out along we go FL I never thought i’ say I was on Lizzy Dag’s back wheel think she’s going very easy on me it’s very muddy it’s like being at home with all the mud on the roads woo getting you ready for Ru yeah Rue

Practice one of the things we were just talking about a minute ago off the camera was kind of like the struggles of bib shorts with women yeah have you ever struggled with saddle saw at all or yeah definitely yeah yeah um I mean I just was put on the wrong saddle to begin

With but I started riding and I struggled with selling oh on one side and then managed to get under control by having like different Saddles different tamies um I tilt my saddle down right so my nose of the saddle is 5° till it sounds like quite a lot and it does look

Like a lot yeah it makes all the difference for me yeah so I would recommend all the obvious things but things like making sure you wearing shorts that are tight yeah like as tight as the so sh doesn’t move around yeah um getting out of your kit as soon as

Possible yeah making sure your sham Dy before you wear it yeah um oh what else um yeah just playing around so that you do find a saddle that fits it is possible to be comfortable yeah you shouldn’t suffer in silence yeah I know and I learned that on Paris ver Paris

But I think one thing for me is definitely the tightness I think mine were a bit loose and I think I didn’t realize it actually really tight so yeah they did yeah but oh we got a little yippy coming up now L is going to wonder

What the what on Earth I’m on about when I go down a hill I always go yippy go on quite hilly training rides or yeah I like Hills yeah makes the dime go faster it does I love Hills as well actually but what’s your favorite Hill

To climb n Edge and where’s that is that H it’s about 5 miles from here okay just a really steep climb in Yorkshire yeah there any climbs broad that you like them um tolay was pretty cool in the of friend nice um and then L one to is

Pretty special that’s on my bucket list yeah it’s definitely worth doing hello sheepy good morning Li’s thinking what is this girl doing for sheep we’ve got sheep in our back Garden yeah I love seeing height of the animals when I’m riding pop up I always get hold off for going in too

Stiff of a gear uphill right so would you tell me off that or do you think i’ say you should do what you want to do oh that’s all right then I’m always told I train in two hard gears as well but I was world champion so yeah exactly you

Can tell him one of those things I mean you’re always like VAR different stuff but yeah it suppose it’s important to listen to people yeah who probably more experienced than you yeah you definitely are more experienced than me no uh we’ll head left okay this is unreal to me got some

Lovely views riding with a pro I mean how did I get here I do not blo in no but I’m embracing it oh this is a random questions popped into me as yeah Sports massages yeah have you ever cried in one no no do people crying them yeah I

Well not I’ve had tears I’ve been reduced to tears after after a very long ride I did the national 24-hour time trial right so ready for 24 hours and a sports massage a few days after oh I’ve never been so much pain in my legs literally was digging in so deep but

Yeah I’m seeing the wrong massage no tears for you I’ve never I’ve never cried over a massage now maybe your legs just are so strong they just don’t yeah we’ll say that don’t build up too much l te that’s our little ride done few more Malones in the bank now Malones is

Another thing it’s going to be like one is on about I don’t know why it’s called miles Melones yeah why not it started on a long distance ride these things happen you sure it’s not um don’t mean something in another langone maybe I Google it but it’s been

Great to rrive with you so thanks for taking me on a little spin thanks for coming it’s all right got star service here any teams out there looking for a mechanic great I can’t have you I need you your local B shop will looking for an apprentice yeah there’s a job advert

Out for Apprentice mechanic the bike shop I’ll send a CV in bik Rider good as new look at that perfect thank you very much shiny in there Carl I think we should get you on this when we get home new job oh Carl even yours is getting

Done bike it the quality yeah about exactly yeah that’s my old bike I was inherited bike what it’s a what so it’s endurance like it’s normally the Canyons light yeah maybe I think I’ve just added some weight into it to slow them down yeah I’ll F fill the middle of the uh tube

With cement oh what a lovely morning of chatting and riding I can’t believe I’ve just been riding with Lizzy darkling that was just a dream Kyle as usual needs a away so he should stopped for a away on the way home he has been here with us today behind the camera not

Featuring for once um but yeah it’s just been really really nice so thank you to Lizzy for for meeting me and thanks to Santini for making this happen shout out to John my best friend at Santini um as you can tell it was a muddy ride oh

Kyle’s back here we go you can have a little feature as usual going for a we and very muddy ride I think it’s sign of a good ride when you get mud on your face um and yeah star service getting our bike coed down at the end oh neck um

But yeah thank you so much for watching if you’re a woman and you want to get into cycling don’t let anything stop you go for it and uh ride in the way that you enjoy it I think is the the main message just don’t feel pressured to

Ride you know if you don’t want to race don’t race if you do then go for it and just yeah do what makes you happy I say and uh it’s always great to meet new people and that’s what I love to do so hopefully that’s been a good video

Hopefully we’re not going to ruin this helmet just falling forward um oh another tractor but yeah it’s time for us to go home and actually get back to our day jobs now so yeah tit the FN goodbye thank you so much for watching