Lizzie Deignan (Armitstead) opens up on sexism in cycling, recalls being ‘forced to dance'
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Updated 01/04/2017 at 11:22 GMT
Lizzie Armitstead has become the latest rider to weigh in on the sexism row which has rocked the sport in recent years.
Lizzie Armitstead
Image credit: Reuters
The 2015 world road race champion recalled a time she was “left with no choice” but to dance with a male team-mate after being woken up by a senior manager of the Cervelo professional team.
The 28-year-old also told the Guardian that the British Cycling team manager in 2015, Brian Stephens, opted to prioritise the men’s junior team instead of coaching her on the day she won the world championship in Virginia.
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Lizzie Armitstead after winning gold in 2015 Road World Championships
Image credit: Reuters
“I was really disappointed, because I’d done everything right going into that competition, and I just needed them to get it right for me on the day,” she said.
And they didn’t. There was a lack of leadership. They let me down big time.
Armitstead is set to release an autobiography written with the Guardian’s cycling correspondent, William Fotheringham.
The book will detail numerous examples of sexism, per the Guardian, who elaborated on one such occasion where she was forced to dance with a team-mate:
Armitstead tells of one particularly awful experience on tour with a professional team when she was 19, after being woken up late at night and told to go downstairs to the bar where they were having an impromptu party for one of the male cyclists.
She found she was the only woman there, and she was left with no choice but to take part in a dance competition with the birthday boy on a Nintendo Wii game while all the other male riders sat on bar stools and watched.
In the book, Armitstead, who was 19 at the time, says she felt confused and foolish, but didn’t know why. It was only later, when I really thought about it, I thought, ‘No, that wasn’t a laugh’.
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