Interview: Lizzie Armitstead
20 year old Lizzie Armitstead is in the middle of a very busy racing season, based in Westmeerbeek, Belgium with the Lotto-Belisol professional racing team. We asked Andrew Kennedy to track her down for an interview and photo-shoot.
Lizzie being interviewed on the start line at Otley Town Centre Races
British Cycling has given me some great assignments covering Premier Calendar races and interviewing up and coming riders. With a keen eye on the BC piggy bank, web manager Phil Ingham always manages to keep me local. When the call came to interview and photograph Belgian based World Track Champion Lizzie Armitstead I thought for sure it would involve a trip to the heartland of cycling and chance to sample the famous Belgian sausage and beer. Might even take my bike to do a ride with Lizzie across the pavé and interview her in a local cycling café with black and white photos of Eddy and Freddy (Merckx and Maertens) looking down on the cafe patrons. "Dream on" said Phil, "Lizzie is coming home to Otley for a few days, do it there."
Otley in the Wharfe valley of Yorkshire is in its own way a bit like Belgium, famous for its pubs and beer drinking; Otley reputedly has more pubs per head of population than any town in England. But more importantly Otley is a great little cycling town. In the shadow of Otley Chevin and a stone's throw from Ilkley Moor, Otley is the cycling gateway to the Yorkshire Dales. Any decent cycling town needs a legend past or present and Otley has got Lizzie.
Lizzie Armitstead is a classic product of the early days of British Cycling's Olympic Talent Team programme; she was picked out as a potential top cyclist on her school's playing field aged 15. Since then, she progressed through the GB Team system and earlier this year became a World Champion in what some commentators called a meteoric rise through the ranks.
In reality the progression from promising Youth and Junior rider to World Champion has been steady and not without problems. The 2007 and 2008 seasons were disrupted with injury that slowed down her development. Late season 2008 she was back on the bike injury free and ready to compete at the Track World Cup in Manchester. In a breathtaking display of bike racing the then 19 year old had the home crowd on the edge of their seats as she won gold in the points, scratch and team pursuit races. Following on from her success at Manchester Lizzie travelled to Melbourne for the Track World Cup winning gold in the scratch race before crashing out of the points race in spectacular style. She finished the Melbourne event as she began with gold in the team pursuit. Her tally for two World Cups was 5 gold medals. With injury problems firmly behind her, Armitstead finished the 2008 season on a high and looked forward to the 2009 campaign.
She call this her 'race face', "I know it's not very attractive, but I'm concentrating and can't do anything about it."
2009 got off to a flying start with Lizzie winning a musette full of gold medals at the Copenhagen Track World Cup, before winning the biggest race of her life so far, the team pursuit World Championships in Poland. With a full set of gold, silver and bronze medals from Poland - she also picked up medals in scratch and points races - it was time to start her life as a Belgian based road professional.
The week we met for interview Lizzie was home from Belgium for the National Road Championships and the important matter of racing in the annual Otley Town Centre criteriums. Earlier that week she'd been to Morley High School to talk at a girl's assembly. The theme was about encouraging schoolgirls to stay involved with sport and keep active in the hope they would say yes to opportunities presented to them at school. You can imagine what the girls thought about Lizzie and the positive impact she had on them. All credit to her for accepting the invitation and taking the time to prepare and deliver to a school assembly.
At the Otley races she was enthusiastically greeted by her home town crowd, and went on to compete against the senior men in a thrilling race. Attacking the men on the climb up Bondgate she had the full field lined out behind her. On the final lap and with an eye on the National Championships the following Saturday Lizzie gracefully sat up before the sprint. She told me later that she didn't want to get involved in the inevitable final corner Otley crash, but maybe she didn't want to damage all that male pride by taking the win, we will never known.
In her parents' kitchen at home in Otley I had a few questions to ask Lizzie, I wanted to find out a bit more about Lizzie the racing cyclist, but a lot more about Lizzie the person. Would she open up? I started by asking about her Belgian road team and how things were working out?
"Lotto-Belisol has given me a good race programme and they are all nice people to work with, it's not a big team environment, everyone has to muck in. The team has a family atmosphere and the sponsor is very hands on. Rochelle Gilmore (the Australian sprinter) is also in the team and on a flat race day I would be expected to work for her in the sprint, on more undulating days that suit me I get my opportunities. The road team is not interested in my track riding unless it's a six day event, so I ride track for Team GB. I've been fortunate with my funding from British Cycling/UK Sport as many of the professional women ride without being paid. At the moment I'm not racing on the road to gain financially, it's about development. In the future I would hope to be on one of the top teams, but as a leader. If I do the road I get stronger for the track, also I love the road, I really enjoy the lifestyle."
Lizzie on Ilkley Moor, "bar t'at", as the locals are reputed to say
Any decisions about the future, where do you see yourself next season?
"I've got to make a decision about whether to stay where I am or move on. The position I'm in at the moment is I'm getting my own opportunities as a leader. I don't have the strongest team behind me but if I went to a bigger team I would possibly be just a worker. The opportunities to win races might decrease and it wouldn't be a good situation for me, I would need to be leader. We will have to see what happens with the team next year. I'm just hoping I continue to perform well and consistently throughout the season."
What about Lizzie the person, she must have a dark side: just before I met her I'd seen a BBC TV report about the Otley Town Centre race the previous night. Lizzie had been interviewed and came across as a confident and articulate young person, nobody can be that nice, I needed to know what she really dislikes, would she tell me?
"I generally don't like animals, I'm scared of them. Anything furry I avoid. I think it goes back to my childhood and learning to swim. A dog ran through the changing rooms and jumped in the pool, my mum was supposed to be looking after me, she's terrified of dogs and just left me, I was only little and it was a traumatic experience for me, I think I'm scarred."
Maybe not that deep Lizzie - I was thinking more about a few dislikes?
"Oh sorry, girls screaming in the peloton really annoy me, there's no need for it, but having said that there were a couple of screams in the race at Otley last night, so maybe it's not a girl thing. Also I'm veggie and don't like the taste of meat. When you see chicken on a plate I presume you see food, I see a dead chicken, and I can't separate it. I don't like flying; I'm a useless passenger which is not very good when I fly so much.
Also sitting in traffic, I'm not very patient. I need to get where I'm going not just sitting about, but I'm always late, that's a family thing, the Armistead's are always the last to turn up at family occasions."
And what do you really like?
"Cheese, the stronger the better. Also my Speedplay pedals, they have made such a difference and cured a lot of the problems I had with my bike position. Christmas at home with the family is very special for me; I love the food and the occasion. Reading is one of my secret pleasures; when I'm travelling I love reading and listening to music on the iPod. I travel on the ferry quite a bit from Hull to Zeebrugge and enjoy relaxing with a book; it's a great way to travel. The thing I really enjoy though is sun, sea and sand: I love going on holiday. A lot of my friends from school are travelling the world, I know I'm doing that as a cyclist but most of the time you are in a hotel room, and whichever country you are in the hotel rooms are very similar. I want to do lots more holiday travelling."
It was then time for a few photos and after a couple in the garden we headed up to Ilkley Moor and the Cow and Calf Rocks overlooking the Wharfe Valley towards Otley for some scenic shots. Over a mug of hot chocolate at the Cow and Calf café I quizzed Lizzie about her chances at the National Road Championships on Saturday and whether she thought Nicole Cooke (9 times winner) had an absolute right to the Championship jersey.
"Nicole is a champion and proved herself year after year, but I wouldn't be going to the Championships if I didn't think I could win. On Saturday I will be racing to win, I'm a little disappointed that the women won't be going over the big climb that the men are doing, and I know Emma Pooley feels the same. I'm looking forward to the race, I'm in great shape and fully prepared, we will have to see what happens."
All that remained was for me to drop her off at home; Lizzie was going to have a rest in the afternoon then ride the Leeds chain-gang for some last minute speed work before travelling to South Wales on Friday.
It had been a great interview and I didn't mind not travelling to Belgium to see her, it was better to see her at home, relaxed and on her own territory. She has a very friendly, open and personable nature, with an intelligent sense of humour, great fun to be with, and oozing star quality. With cycling now in the big time Lizzie Armitstead has a very exciting and promising future ahead, we will be seeing a lot more of this young woman from Otley.
Footnote:
On the following Saturday Lizzie narrowly missed snatching the Women's Road title from Olympic Champion Nicole Cooke in a sprint finish, claiming the silver medal, with Emma Pooley getting bronze. Lizzie then found herself at the centre of controversy when UCI commissaire ruled she was ineligible for the silver as she had won gold in the under 23 classification. The British Cycling board later overturned that decision and Lizzie was awarded the senior silver as well as the under 23 gold.
