Lizzie Deignan retires

[carlislemike]

So Lizzie Deignan finally retired. She has had a great career and deserves lots of plaudits but the OTT eulogies seem to miss several things. The references to groundbreaking or landmark athlete may be flavour of the moment but forget other female cyclists of the past and in particular, Nicole Cooke whose palmarés is probably as good if not better and includes an Olympic Gold, the first ever by a British woman. She had the bottle to take on the British Cycling superestructural defects including sexism and misogyny, drug taking, etc. Her actions are ones which Deignan benefited from. So okay, great cyclist retiring is fine but groundbreaking/landmark, not in my opinion. Cooke was a leader for equality but subsequent to her public comments and autobiography, ignored by the cycling press and establishment.

[mattheus]

So Lizzie Deignan finally retired. She has had a great career and deserves lots of plaudits but the OTT eulogies seem to miss several things. The references to groundbreaking or landmark athlete may be flavour of the moment but forget other female cyclists of the past and in particular, Nicole Cooke whose palmarés is probably as good if not better and includes an Olympic Gold, the first ever by a British woman. She had the bottle to take on the British Cycling superestructural defects including sexism and misogyny, drug taking, etc. Her actions are ones which Deignan benefited from. So okay, great cyclist retiring is fine but groundbreaking/landmark, not in my opinion. Cooke was a leader for equality but subsequent to her public comments and autobiography, ignored by the cycling press and establishment.

Well said. Cooke deserves a lot more credit.

[I wonder if another factor is that her career was just a little before the big fashion for supporting women in sport? Cunningham's law may apply! }

[carlislemike]

The Welsh Cycling Union sent her to the 2006 Commonwealth Games but totally without team support but somehow managed to send a 6 man male team. Cooke was at the time the title holder. Sexism/ Misogyny ruled in Wales!

[maanderx]

The Welsh Cycling Union sent her to the 2006 Commonwealth Games but totally without team support but somehow managed to send a 6 man male team. Cooke was at the time the title holder. Sexism/ Misogyny ruled in Wales!

That was the same for women's football and rugby too.