During the opening half of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, Lizzie Deignan had a shadow. When the Lidl-Trek woman moved in the peloton, Gaia Realini moved with her. A small, slight figure, the Italian rider was glued to the wheel of her experienced teammate as they ducked and dived through the chaotic roads of The Netherlands. Deignan has, effectively, been ensuring that Realini – a pure climber – makes it to the mountain stages this weekend unscathed, acting as her bodyguard in the bunch. While it is an important role, it’s a far cry from the type of riding Deignan was once known for.
“My role has evolved, I don’t think it’s anything to shy away from, I’m not the rider I once was in terms of dominance and being able to get results week in week out. I’m really okay with that, I don’t have an ego and I get so much joy and satisfaction from working for the team,” Deignan told Rouleur after stage four of the Tour.
“Gaia is an exceptional athlete and she really is a pure climber so she needs help. She’s an incredible leader in that she is very grateful and appreciative and she understands how important teamwork is. Particularly in the first few days of a race like this, she weighs just over 40 kilos so to try and muscle her way through is difficult. Even physical things like her handlebars, the drops are low so if she’s riding along next to someone they get caught underneath. She can’t even shelter that well next to people because she rides under their handlebars so it’s about just delivering her to the last couple of days where it’s mountainous with as full a battery as possible.”
The British rider’s willingness to work hard for a rider like Realini to have a shot at her own results comes from the fact she has complete faith in the 23-year-old to perform on her favoured terrain. After a decade and a half in the professional peloton, Deignan has seen plenty of generations of general classification riders come and go, but she believes that La Vuelta Femenina stage winner Realini is special.
“She’s actually just got it, whatever it is that you need to be able to win big races I really think she’s got it. She’s excited to race, she deals with the pressure really well so I think it’s about supporting her to be who she is,” Deignan explained. “We are definitely from different generations. I met her dad at the Giro who doesn't speak much English and said ‘hi Papa Gaia’ and her mum said I’m ‘mama Gaia’. It was a cute moment. Gaia’s English has come on leaps and bounds. She’s young and I’m experienced, rather than old!”
Image: Tornanti
Once, Deignan was known as a rider to watch in the one-day races – an attacking puncheur who had the ability to get over short climbs while still producing an impressive turn of speed at the finish. The 35-year-old’s palmarès are breathtaking: she has wins in Paris-Roubaix Femmes, the World Championships, the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Trofeo Binda. In the last two seasons, however, it has become rare to see Deignan at the pointy end of bike races as she has taken on a domestique role within her team – something she believes is because of her lifestyle changing over the past few years since the birth of her children.
“I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been difficult to switch roles. It’s realising that I might never reach the potential I still have because my lifestyle is so different now. That’s a weird shift, sometimes having to settle a little bit in terms of the preparation. I know that I will never be able to prepare in the way that other athletes do but that’s my choice and something I stand by,” Deignan said. “I’m not prepared to go to altitude for three weeks and leave my kids behind, I have other priorities. It’s not that I’m less committed, it's just that I have balance. The reality is that if I didn’t have that balance I wouldn’t be doing the job anymore. It’s about accepting that and making the most of what I’m able to do, I still think I add a lot of value.”
Lidl-Trek, the organisation that Deignan has been part of for the last five years, have been supportive of the British rider’s change in mindset. While they might have signed her initially as a rider who could be relied on for victories in the Classics, the American outfit understands that Deignan can still offer great value to the team in other places, as she has shown in her mentoring and guidance of young riders like Realini.
“I’ve thought about [retiring] and it is definitely getting closer. I have spoken to the team about making my change in role more official so that I don’t have the pressure of leadership and constant feeling of failure,” Deignan says. “I embrace my new role. We have spoken about making that more official and designing my race programme around where I need to be to do that job well and stuff like that.”
As for the rest of this Tour de France, Lidl-Trek head to the Alps with their hopes riding on the likes of Realini and Shirin van Anrooij, the team's two exciting young climbing talents. Deignan won’t be the one with the pressure on her shoulders to perform, but she’s at peace with this, excelling in a different part of the sport. Deignan is plenty of other things as well as a bike rider, something she’s come to understand after years of experience in the Women’s WorldTour. Now, it’s time for her to pass that knowledge on.
“We’re here with Shirin and Gaia to see how far they can go. If they have a good day then there’s no reason why they can’t be there in the mountains – they have shown exceptional climbing before,” Deignan said. “It’s all about giving them the best chance to do well.”
Cover image: Thomas Maheux/ASO
