Interview with Lizzie Armitstead

Interview with Golden Girl Lizzie Armitstead

Story posted December 4

By Larry Hickmott

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Gold medal number 4 for Lizzie Armitstead (centre of picture) came in the Scratch race in the Melbourne World Track Cup recently. Lizzie went on to win number 5 in the Women's Team Pursuit with Joanna Rowsell and Katie Colclough. Photo: www.tissottiming.com/

Five Gold medals in two World Track Cups is quite an achievement for a teenager but then they come as no surprise as Lizzie Armitstead has been winning medals for three years already and she is still only 19. I was in Austria in 2005 to see her win a Silver medal as a first year Junior and since then she has continued to show she has what it takes to be an Olympic champion.

It is all a far cry from the days when she took a talent team test all in the name of skipping a lesson at school. The former 800 metre runner was told she had potential to be a champion and the Yorkshire rider has not looked back since.

2008_Lizzie_Armitstead_05_GB_150 Despite glandular fever and a back problem in the last few years, this gritty, determined young lady has fought back each time. Off the bike, Lizzie is a quiet, good natured young lady who looks like she is more suited to walking down a catwalk at a fashion show than sprinting down the home straight of a track to win Gold. But put her on a bike and the teeth are bared, the muscles tensed and watch out anyone who gets in her way!

In an interview with the Independent newspaper (Independent Newspaper Interview), Lizzie gave an insight into why she loves her work. "What really gives me the buzz about cycling is the speed I can achieve. I like to push myself as hard as I can and I just love whizzing round corners. I think the reason we have had so much success is the sheer hard work put in by everyone concerned. If you are any good, you are given the opportunity to show it."

Gold medal winning bike riders are a special breed and Lizzie is certainly special but when we spoke on Tuesday, she was not a well lass with a cough and generally feeling ill. Her teammate in Australia at the Melbourne World Track Cup, Katie Colclough was also ill and it highlights one of the problems travelling brings with it.

Lizzie was meant to be going to Columbia on Sunday, along with Katie, but since getting ill and seeing a drop in form, she and Katie are being left at home to continue training. After a long period of racing from the European Track Championships, the Road Worlds, the Manchester World Track Cup and then the Melbourne World Track Cup, Lizzie has not had time for training which is what she is now looking forward too.

After five Gold medals, she has certainly shown she has what it takes to compete with the best in the World and now the goal is the World Track Championships next year where she has qualified a place after a win at the European championships. Being the ever modest young lady, she admits she is pleased with her five World Track Cup Golds but quickly adds the fields in the races were not as strong as they could have been. That may be so but at the Road Worlds where the best were racing, she showed how good she really is in what was her first real road race of the year!

Lizzie

2007 and Lizzie was chosen to be GB's representative in the opening ceremony at the European Championships

Lizzie admits she has definitely progressed since she did her one and only World Track Cup last winter and went onto explain that she is also able to swap from road to track very easily. “I don't generally have any problems going from one to the other so my form at Manchester (World Track Cup) was quite good. I had done the Track Euros before the Road Worlds and I think I was hanging on to that form until Melbourne but during the trip home became ill on the back of being so tired.”

After winning no less than three Gold in Manchester (along with Victoria Pendleton), Lizzie was flown to Australia on a whistle stop visit a few weeks later where she won two more Gold. The team arrived at 1am on Tuesday morning and were racing on the Thursday where Lizzie picked up her first Gold in the Scratch race. Little wonder did it feel like she was pedalling in her sleep as the jet lag took its toll!

Looking back at the Scratch race, Lizzie says “the race was really good and I felt pretty strong. I rode a bigger gear than I did in Manchester and felt strong on the gear when I went for the win. Sure, the sparkling form wasn’t there but I still had the strength in the sprint to lead it out with two to go and still win so my form can’t have been that bad!”

The next day, Lizzie lined up in the heats of the Women’s Points race but a rider diving down the track took out Lizzie’s front wheel and down went the Yorkshire girl, cutting her elbow really badly in the process. Showing the determination of a true bike rider, Lizzie was up and sprinting again quickly.

"When I crashed I didn’t even think about the elbow and just thought about getting up straight away because I knew there were only two sprints left and I hadn’t scored any points. That was my main priority and because there is all this adrenalin, I just didn’t realise the elbow was that bad until I was covered in blood and could feel it dripping. I needed to get a towel to stop the bleeding and that was when I realised the elbow was badly cut”.

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Left, A deep cut to Lizzie's elbow needed stitches after her crash in the Points race. Right, Lizzie wearing the World Cup leader's jersey. Photo: PhotoSport International

There was more bad luck for her because her bike was damaged and she had to ride her teammates bike which is smaller and had a lower gear on it. “For the final two sprints I was in the right place but I was just going backwards as I didn’t have the gear to push on” Lizzie explained.

Not making the final was no big loss though because Lizzie realises now she would never have made the final anyway after being treated for the crash and the shock. Part of that medication by the trackside medics was some morphine which Lizzie admits helped her get the best nights sleep she had all week! Having had morphine after an accident myself I can understand why…

Lizzie added that “the next day though I felt really groggy and my arm hurt but during the race it was the legs that hurt more than my arm! As you get into the race, you forget about it (the arm) and its only afterwards you feel it hurting again.”

On that final day, Lizzie combined with World Women’s Team Pursuit champion Joanna Rowsell and Katie Colclough to win the Gold in the Team Pursuit, their second victory in two World Track Cups. They won the European title as well to add to those Gold medals. The young lady was continuing to make a name for herself and says of the attention she is getting, “it’s very exciting really and I hadn’t expected this success to come so quickly.”

Despite journalists and agents contacting British Cycling to talk to her, the ever modest Lizzie continues to keep her feet on the ground saying that she knows come the World Track Championships in March, her rivals will be tougher to beat, much tougher.

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Three young stars who in 2008 have three Gold medals in the Women's Team Pursuit, two from World Track Cups and another in the Under 23 European Championships. Lizzie Armitstead, Joanna Rowsell and Katie Colclough.

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Katie Colclough leads Joanna Rowsell and Lizzie during their win in Melbourne. Photo: PhotoSport International

London Calling
It is though the Olympics in four years that is on everyone’s minds, especially after the great success in Beijing, 2008. Lizzie admits though that watching the Olympics in Beijing, that level of success felt out of reach.

“Whilst it was motivating, it also felt daunting at the time but since I have added some medals to my name, I definitely feel like it is something I can achieve. I am certainly very motivated to work hard and keep working hard for the 2012 Games which I know is just round the corner.”

“I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for me and I can’t wait to make the most of it.”

Going professional on the road
Away from the track, Lizzie has also signed for a pro team in Belgium in 2009, the same team that former Olympic champion Sara Carrigan (now retired) rode for in 2008, Lotto-Belisol. Lizzie explained that she was approached by the team in Belgium before the World Road Championships where she did such a great ride to prove beyond any doubt she was worthy of a place in the team.

“Prior to that I was planning to stay with the Olympic Academy on the road but Shane (Sutton) had a word with them and said its time for me to move on and get a bit of independence which was definitely something I wanted to do. I was really happy when I was given the green light because it’s a small team run by a guy who is fantastic, a really genuine honest guy who knows what I want to do.”

“He said the team will help me as much as possible and that they are pleased that I have a track programme to work with as well. They do all the big races and tours like the Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin but they don’t have any riders like Nicole Cooke for example, so I will get my opportunity to race to win which is what I wanted.”

The team has no specific base and races all over Belgium with Lizzie saying that Belgium and Holland is the place to be as that is where most of the racing is.

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2008 World Road Race Championships -- the break which Lizzie was part of all race has been brought back late in the race and she looks back to ask eventual champion Nicole Cooke, how can I help...

Her road season next year however will have to wait until the winter track season has finished with the Track Worlds. “At the start of this year, my goal was to have a season on the road to build up my strength so I could become a better bunch race rider on the track.”

“I have sort of achieved that goal already and it would be a missed opportunity not to do the Track Worlds now so I am going to carry on through to then as well as getting in some road work in so I don’t start the road season with track legs.”

You wouldn’t guess looking at Lizzie with that smile of hers but she really is a tough, hardened northern lass who isn’t afraid of venturing out into the winter cold to get in some miles on two wheels. She admits however that she doesn’t feel like she has done any training since the Manchester World Track Cup because of the race programme she has had.

“I don’t really feel like I have trained because I have been tapering, resting, flying etc so from now until Christmas I am getting in a road block and as well as some track sessions twice a week on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.

Asked if the wintery conditions we’re experiencing are a problem, she simply shrugs it off saying “It’s what I am used to. As long as it’s a nice crisp clear winters day , it’s okay unlike when its wet and cold. I do enjoy getting in the long miles but miss the roads around my home town (Otley) because there I can get straight out into the Dales. Here though (Manchester) I have a lot of traffic but because of the velodrome, I have to be here.”

Lizzie admits though even in a high tech British team all the training gadgets leave her cold just like the weather. “I am bit useless with computers! Everything I have had on my bike seems to break so I just go by the clock until its done where as Jo (Joanna Rowsell) is definitely a heart rate monitor and SRM girl”.

The training this week though is on the back burner while she rests and tries to get rid of the illness that is causing her, other riders and probably half the country problems at the moment. She admits she doesn’t feel that bad but certainly doesn’t want to make it any worse by training and getting even more run down.

When we spoke, Lizzie was crossing her fingers she was going to be fit enough to do the Revolution meeting this weekend where she will be one of the stars of the Elite Women’s field which also includes World Champion and Lizzie’s flat mate, Joanna Rowsell along with a host of the country’s top young female riders as well as some from the USA.