- Welcome to a very special Ask GC Anything
with Lizzie Deignan.
We're here at the Houses of Parliament
and we're here for the launch
of the Ovo Energy Women's Tour.
Lizzie has very kindly offered to give us some of her time
and she's pretty busy.
It's very kind of you, thank you for coming in
specially and making some extra time for us.
Now we've had loads of questions
from people who are huge fans of you.
So, I hope we can rattle through them.
We both speak pretty fast, so I think it'll be fine.
- Yeah, it'll be alright.
- So, this first question is from Yaybaum on Instagram.
And they ask, Hi Lizzie you mentioned earlier in the year
that you'd gone on your first and last
five hour ride for the year.
What kind of duration on a bike do you find
works best for you?
- Well, it's an interesting topic actually
because the reason I put it on Instagram
was because I'd seen this kind of trend across
a lot of professional female athletes,
posting about how much long hours they'd done.
And I just thought it was important to offer
a different perspective to potentially other
young female cyclists following me
that it might work for them but it doesn't work
for everybody.
And for me like, five hours just makes me slow.
I do plenty of four hour rides and harder
but yeah, it was just about offering
that different perspective really.
- It's a really good point, because it related obviously
to the races you're going to be targeting?
- Yeah, exactly.
- Great thank you very much.
How about this from, this is from Elliot B123456
on Instagram, what's your favourite pre-race ritual?
Do you do rollers or turbin the night before
or just an easy spin?
- Very much depends on where I've travelled in from.
So, if I've had a flight the day before
then I'll try and do something after a flight.
But, if I get in a flight in the morning before
and I'm able to ride on the road
I'll do an hour and a half, couple of sprints.
Very simple, nothing too heavy.
And pre-race ritual I'll always bring my brand-new socks.
- Brand-new socks! You must get through a lot of socks!
- I do get through a lot of socks.
- What do you do with the old ones?
- I use them in training.
- Oh okay, that's fair enough.
We wouldn't want to waste socks.
- No, no.
- That's good to know, thank you.
(laughing)
So I suppose that's also interesting...
A question from me, do you and your teammates
all do the same thing the day before a race
when you've arrived or do you go off
and do your own pre-race training.
- Everyone pretty much does
within a two hour range of rides.
So we'll set off together at the same time.
It's important for us to sometimes reccy a course as well,
particularly if it's a sprint,
try and see the last couple of Ks,
so we know where we're gonna...
Each person peel off in the lead-out, stuff like that.
- Yep. Cool. Thank you.
This is a slightly less technical question,
also on Instagram from MXTTH_EW,
would like to know what is marriage like
between two pro cyclists?
- Well, so far so good.
I think there's definite advantages
to being married to someone who does the same job,
just because they understand what I'm going through.
We give and take a little bit.
We're lucky, as well, that...
- Compromise? In a marriage?
(laughing)
- Exactly, yeah. We're lucky that
our focus is in the season at different points.
So I might cook a bit more, clean a bit more,
when it's a couple of weeks out from the Giro
and let him off for being a grumpy man.
And he'll do the same come September, so.
- Yeah, he understands the pressures, which is great.
Do you get much time at home together?
It must be... You know, racing schedules,
it must be a bit...
- It's difficult, definitely, in the spring
and in the lead-up to the Giro.
Like last year we had eight weeks
where we didn't see each other, which was tough going.
But then off-season it's 24/7.
You give and take a little bit.
- Great. Thank you.
ESME.SC on Instagram would like to know
what advice you would give to women new to racing
or thinking about getting into racing?
- I would say give it a go.
Yeah, why not?
If you've got that kind of itch, then give it a go.
There's nothing to be scared of,
I think the main point to remember
is that we all started somewhere.
I started, and I was under 16
and I was getting beaten by under-12 boys,
so we've all started somewhere.
I think you just have to throw yourself
in at the deep end a bit.
- I agree. Yeah, I find it pretty scary
at the start as well.
But I was a bit older.
Also on Instagram,
ACESVONBASES would like to know
whether hard sessions cause you any gastrointestinal issues?
- Unfortunately, yes.
It's a problem I've experienced my whole career, actually,
something that I've had to manage.
Had loads of medical tests,
have never really got to the bottom of what's wrong.
- It's amazing, really, because you've had
really serious problems you've spoken about,
and to perform at the level you do with...
And trying to be a vegetarian,
and some countries are not so friendly
to vegetarians, that must be tricky.
- It is tricky,
but I think everybody has their vice.
If they're under pressure, and they're tired or whatever,
it comes out, for some people, in a chest infection,
or an ankle injury, or whatever,
whereas my problem is always my stomach.
So it's a clear sign for me that I'm run down
and I have to back off.
Sometimes it comes at really annoying times
in the season, but it's something I've learnt to manage.
- Great. Thanks.
GILBEYT would like to know
what your go-to springtime training session is.
- I think the great thing about spring is
that all the long, in my opinion, boring hours are done,
and it's about intensity,
so the relentless aspect of a spring classic
is short, repeated efforts with quick recovery,
and that's what I love doing.
I like to do capacity efforts, I would call them.
So anything under five minutes, repeatedly,
short, intense climbs, that's what I like.
- Sound horrible,
but different riders for different courses I guess.
- Yeah exactly.
I like the fact that the pain's over quickly.
- Well if you can recover well.
(laughing)
Wonderful. That'll be really interesting to people I think.
So now we've got a question
from Lucy Ellmore, who's a huge Lizzie fan,
as I think everyone is here,
and would love to know how you motivate yourself
to train when the weather's bad,
or when you don't feel like riding,
as I need something else to motivate me,
other that aspiring to be as good as you. Thanks.
- Aw, well thank you Lucy.
I think, for me, I'm lucky that it's my job,
so, it's about being conscientious,
it's about making sure that I'm doing
what I'm employed to do.
But from an amateur perspective,
how I will motivate myself post-professional career
is just the feeling of disappointment
or guilt or laziness if I don't do it,
like to avoid that feeling for me
is worth pushing myself to get out.
- Yeah, I think it's true for most people
who know that sport makes them happy.
- Yeah, exactly.
Nine times out of ten it's gonna make me feel better.
- Here's a question from me now.
So I happen to think I know
that you used to be a runner. Is that right?
- I did, yeah.
- Do you still run at all?
- I have started running in the off-season, yeah.
So, Phil, my husband,
he got tested a couple of years ago
for bone density, and he had some issues,
and was encouraged to run in the off season,
which is great, because now I have a running partner
in the winter.
- Weight-bearing exercise is very important
for cyclists to do, in the off-season especially.
- I really like running,
it keeps your condition and your weight
down through the off season.
And it's quick and easy.
You can put a pair of trainers in a suitcase
on holiday, much easier than you can a bike.
- Tell me about it. I'm gonna get so much flak
because I keep bringing up running on GCN,
and getting told off, but thank you very much.
This is kind of similar, in that
it is about strength training, which is also weight bearing.
Lindsey Ackers would like to know
if you do any strength training,
and if you do, what do you do, and how often?
And I think it's quite general,
that could be core and weights.
- Again, so I think this is really personal,
I have teammates that spend three nights a week
in the gym and it really works for them,
and they benefit loads from it.
I've tried, and I didn't. I just got slower.
Slower and sluggish. So, I actually do
all of my core stability sessions at home,
so every other day. I find it cheaper
than going to a gym.
- Quicker as well. You save time.
- It's quicker, it's easy to do.
Even from my perspective, I follow people on Youtube.
People might not believe that
professional athletes do that as well, but I do.
- You should check out some GCN core stability sessions
with Matt Stevens.
- Oh really?
- I think they're a bit too easy, to be honest, for Lizzie.
This is from on Twitter, this is Jill Trigg,
would like to know what your favourite
pre-race meal or snack is.
- I'm all about eggs. Love eggs.
Maybe not pre-race. Post- I'm all about eggs.
- Okay, but pre-race, an egg,
I've found I've had bad experiences with eggs.
- Porridge, yeah. Porridge.
- We like porridge, I like porridge, that's good.
Great, thank you.
Similar vein, James Kendrick would like to know
how do you manage racing as a vegetarian?
And he says you're such an inspiration.
So there you go. Give him a good answer.
- Well, being a vegetarian...
I've been a vegetarian since I was ten years old,
so it's something that I'm very used to now,
I've not cut out meat as a professional athlete.
I've always been accustomed to it.
I've definitely started to take my nutrition
much more seriously in the last five years,
and noticed much improvement in performance.
Actually, being a vegetarian pushes you to be
more adventurous, to take your nutrition
much more seriously. Because you have to consider
where you get your protein and vitamins from.
My challenge is coming when I'm travelling.
When I'm in Europe, they're not quite as...
- I've experienced this, yes.
- A vegetarian ham omelette happens a lot.
- Basically if it's not bleeding
it's vegetarian, they think.
- And they just don't get it.
It's about preparation, really.
- Do you travel with food in your suitcase
for emergencies?
- Yeah, I've always got some chickpeas, peanut butter.
- Great, thank you very much.
This is possibly our last question,
this is from Ben Moore,
he says Hi Lizzie, I'd love to hear any
Cervelo Test Team stories you have.
- Honestly that was probably
one of my favourite periods of my career,
it was such a good team, men and women.
- I think it was ahead of its time in some ways.
- Massively, yeah. Great atmosphere.
The team just clicked, and we are really successful.
- We were quite a good team, weren't we? Not just me.
- I learned so much there and I loved it.
I have a funny story, actually.
We went on a joint men's-women's training camp in Portugal.
My husband was there,
but I only remembered him as the Irish guy.
He remembers a conversation we had
at the dessert buffet.
And he told me to stay away from them, apparently.
- Oh really?
- So that's probably why I don't remember him.
- No? I was gonna say,
I would've never gone near him again
if he told you to stay away from dessert.
- Yeah I should've shipped a chocolate cake in his face.
He wouldn't say that to me now.
- No, I should hope not.
Well thank you very much, Lizzie, for your time,
it's been wonderful talking to you,
and there's so many questions we couldn't answer,
I'm sorry to all the people who sent questions in
that we didn't have time for.
- Next time.
- It's been a busy day
because it's the launch
of the OVO Energy Women's tour today.
You can watch Lizzie racing there.
It will be screened live, I think?
- Yeah.
- And it's a bloody good race, so watch it.
I you'd like to check out more
you can look at Matt Stevens interviewing
Esteban Chaves down here.