Almost exactly a year after joining FDJ United-SUEZ, the top-ranked women’s WorldTour team, Lauren Dickson lined up to make her debut at the UCI Road World Championships in Montréal, racing against her teammates, including Demi Vollering, who was destined to take the rainbow jersey.
Dickson finished 18th in the women’s elite road race, but representing Great Britain on the global stage and placing in the top 20 is just the latest chapter in an extraordinary story, which has seen the young Scot go from a promising triathlete working jobs in garden centres, offices and schools to becoming a professional cyclist riding alongside the very best in world, in the space of two-and-a-half years.
“I came through a British Triathlon Performance Centre, and right from 16 I was on a British athletics feature programme, a talent course,” the Edinburgh-based rider, now 26, explained just ahead of her ride at the Worlds.
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During this process, she received physiotherapy and media training, and was taught about nutrition and so on, but she credits her exposure to ‘real life’ as a significant motivating factor during her journey to becoming a full-time cyclist.
“Having worked in an office, I can be even more grateful that this is my career, because I know that, for me, sitting in the office, all I’m thinking about is training before and after work. That’s all I want to do. So then, when [cycling] is your job, it feels even more special.”
Lauren Dickson (centre) at the Worlds with Flora Perkins (L) and Pfeiffer Georgi (R)
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The dream-like odyssey Dickson has been on for the last couple of years was, in part, sparked by encouraging comments from Australian rider Anya Louw, which came about through pure serendipity.
“My husband [fellow Scot Sean Flynn] is a professional cyclist, and I was training with him and his housemate, who was a WorldTour rider. [Louw] saw my numbers and she was like, ‘You know, you really should try cycling,” Dickson recalls.
“I’d always loved riding, like it was always my favourite part of the training for triathlon – on big group rides, you get to see different places – but it was only when Anya said ‘You really should give it a go, what have you got to lose?’, [that’s when] I started to do it and started to realise, actually, yeah, it’s really fun.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Her debut WorldTour season has not been without its challenges. Following a breakthrough ride at the Women’s Giro – her first Grand Tour – where she was instrumental in Demi Vollering‘s overall win and took 11th herself, she sustained a collarbone fracture at Tour de Suisse. She came back at the Tour of Britain Women where she won Queen of the Mountains jersey, but two crashes ended her hopes of a top-ten finish.
She bounced back in style with her first professional win on stage four of the Faun Tour Femme in early September, and says training and competing alongside riders like Vollering, with whom she shares a coach, has been a priceless education in itself.
“It’s one of those cliches, but if you learn from the best, it’s the best way to do it, and I really think it’s true,” she said, explaining how exposure to more experienced elite riders and the FDJ team psychology has shaped the mindset she takes into races.
“You’re really ambitious and you know what your end goal is, and you really focus on having a plan to get there. We want to try and shape the race to play to our advantage. Learning how to do that, and learning by doing so what other teams might also do, so you’re prepared mentally and like physically you’re ready for what’s likely to happen – it’s really important.”
The Worlds are done and dusted, and her debut professional road season is behind her, but Dickson has even bigger goals in her sights, including the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. “It’s really ambitious, but I guess I’m working towards that,” she revealed. “I’m really trying to focus on the road and the time trial. It’s something that we’re going to invest in over the winter this year.
“In cycling, a lot of things can happen, so you make most of everything. Setting my sights on LA would be a huge dream.”
Dickson will be one of four British riders to compete at the European championships in Ljubljana, Slovenia, this weekend. She will ride the elite women’s time trial while Ethan Hayter and Callum Thornley will ride the elite men’s. Ben Wiggins will ride the under-23 time trial.
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