Lizzy Banks (Image credit: Jered Gruber & Ashley Gruber | Gruber Images)
Lizzy Banks has not been a professional cyclist for all that long. A latecomer to the sport, Banks left the sixth year of her medical degree to pursue a career in cycling, giving up long-held hopes of being a doctor to try to be a professional athlete. She made a name for herself as a rider who had taken a risk, stepped away from well-laid plans to try and make it in the peloton, and looked to be doing just that.
But for the last two years, her place in the peloton has been empty, the 32-year-old sidelined for two seasons in a row by back-to-back medical issues threatening her trajectory toward the sport’s top.
In an in-depth interview with Cyclingnews , Banks reflects on the challenges she has faced and overcame nearly two years later.
At first, Lizzy Banks ’ switch to professional racing was all going well, exceptionally well, in fact. After racing for UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling in 2018, in her first full European seasons she won stages at the Giro Donne in both 2019 and 2020, as well as coming second at the GP de Plouay , behind compatriot Lizzie Deignan.
She then survived the untimely disbanding of Équipe Paule Ka in 2020 to secure a contract with Ceratizit-WNT for the next year. At the beginning of 2021, she had just had a breakout season, she was on the right track, and then a concussion she suffered at […]
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