The British Continental
Stories about British bike racing, teams and riders.
The British Continental
From Cat 4 Licence to UCI Podiums in 12 Months | Inside Lauren Dickson’s Meteoric Rise
Twenty-five-year-old Scot Lauren Dickson only pinned on a race number in 2024 - yet by May 2025 she was 3rd overall at the Tour of Norway and winner of the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix.
In this conversation with host Denny Gray, the former mountain-runner and triathlete breaks down the defining moments, steep learning curves and audacious goals that have made her one of Britain’s fastest-rising road racers.
The Handsling Alba Development Road Team rider's sporting life did not start on two wheels. She began as a Scotland-capped junior runner but broke a bone in her left foot in 2019, leaving her ankle too fragile for downhill running. Rehab led her to triathlon and draft-legal duathlon in Spain, where she picked up bunch-riding skills.
In 2024 she Googled how to start road racing, joined Edinburgh Road Club, finished 44th in her first event, then won two local races a fortnight later. Second place at the Lancaster Grand Prix caught Handsling Alba Development Road Team’s eye; a runner-up ride at Ryedale and methodical work on her descending followed.
She delivered Alba’s first National Road Series win at the Rapha Lincoln GP and, with new confidence, matched WorldTour climbers at the Tour of Norway. Next up is the Tour of Britain Women on home roads, while former pro Hannah Barnes is helping her to navigate WorldTour interest.
For now, though, the plan is simple: keep learning fast, race even faster—and enjoy every descent she once feared.
If you enjoy the show, please rate us, leave a review and share it with a club-mate who still thinks Cat-4 is the ceiling.
Produced by Will Jones.
Rapha presents The British Continental.
Welcome to the British Continental Podcast, where we dig beneath the results sheet to meet the people peddling Britain's cycling future. I'm denny gray, and today's guest has probably taken the idea of a meteoric rise and shaved a few light years off that timeline. We are joined by lauren dixon, who only took up road racing last year and is already the winner of the rafa lincoln grand prix and has had some stellar results in uci road races. Lauren, you're fresh off uh an amazing weekend at the tour of norway, where you came third overall, second on stage one. Thank you so much for for joining us before you hop off to the tour of britain in a few days time my pleasure and where are you today, lauren?
Speaker 1:I'm back on my parents house in edinburgh now, just in preparation for the tour of britain great.
Speaker 2:So, lauren, I just want to kind of start with the weekend, really, because I've followed your results over the last year and every time you race um, your results seem to get better and better. And the tour of norway, a very high level race with a lot of high level competitors, uh seem to be your best result yet. Is that something you'd you'd agree with?
Speaker 1:I definitely agree with it. It's a funny one because originally I wasn't going to race it, just to focus on tour britain. But then the opportunity came up and we had a little look at the parkers and thought it actually could be really suited to me. So might as well give it a go. And yeah, I don't think it could have gone any better for me, to be honest. I was really happy.
Speaker 2:I didn't get to see it on TV. Can you talk us through that stage one where you you got second, just behind just Justine Harkira?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the first stage there was a really crucial climb, about two kilometers long, that you went over three times, with the finish being at the summit on the third ascent, which for me is perfect because it means that that's kind of my strength at the end of a race, similar to lincoln, but a bit longer. So, yeah, so I just knew that I needed to be in a good position coming into the climb and pace myself, but try and attack over the top. And when the race actually unfolded, like they always happen, it never goes exactly how you imagine it would do, and Sarah Kikante went off really, really hard and I thought I don't think I can follow that pace, but I'll try and bridge to her. And then, just as I bridged, justine kicked over the top and I didn't have anything left. But she's one of the best climbers in the world, so maybe you wouldn't expect to have anything left.
Speaker 3:And Dixon is still involved. Still 100 metres to go and this tough, tough gradient is proving very selective Gigante. Looks like he's going to hang on for third, but Kikir has done enough and she'll rise to the line.
Speaker 2:And a two fisted to salute to celebrate the glory. Yeah, she won the kom jersey, of course, in the tour de france fam last year, so uh knows, knows a thing or two about climbing. Was that a surprise to you?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I think it's always hard to know how you'll actually compare against these girls when you race them. But in training my like my numbers have been coming along and I do a lot of riding on ascents around where I live. So that's, that's my favorite part of it, and I've done a real focus on climbing recently. So I was hoping I had big ambitions and I think that's important when you come in to race these races, that you have to believe in yourself, because until you get a result you've never actually proven to anyone what you think you're capable of. So maybe my coaches and our team we hoped we could do something, but you never know until you've actually tried yeah, okay, well, we'll come back to the present day in a bit.
Speaker 2:But, lauren, I just wanted to kind of retrace your journey between, uh, kind of, I guess, childhood and now really. And I know you've had a sporting background, but when did interest and your engagement with sport begin?
Speaker 1:When I was in primary school. Really, I think our family's always been sporty. You know we'd always take the bikes on holiday, we'd go for little runs. But yeah, when I was in primary primary school I started cross country and really enjoyed it, joined last weight athletics club from there and went on to represent Scotland in all the disciplines really of like middle distance cross country, road running and track, and then one of my friends got me into triathlon. So I was always dabbling in triathlon, a lot of the triathlon training really, but racing with athletics because that was kind of the people I'd always raced with.
Speaker 1:And then I discovered mountain running and I loved it. I went to Euros, I went to Worlds, I went to a World Cup and then I broke my foot just in a race, got on a rock and broke it and that was kind of the end of mountain running for me really, because although it damaged the ligaments, it fractured the bone and because of the way it had broken, the ligaments could never join back onto the cuboid, which meant that my ankle was always weak. We did so much physio but at the end of the day you can't keep running if you just roll over your ankle every time you start to descend. So that was kind of when I really started to focus on triathlon more and I was loving it. You know, like I always loved the cycling, I think that's always probably one of my favourite disciplines, so it's kind of natural.
Speaker 1:And then, yeah, I went to Spain for a year abroad with university, joined a club there and there's a huge duathlon scene. It's almost like the perfect transition. You go from running a bit of triathlon, racing and then duathlon. It's really intense. It's like an hour max run, max bike. There we're lucky because it's draft legal and they close down the city centre. They're quite technical circuits really and it means that, yeah, you're much more prepared than had it been non-drafting triathlon.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you got a taste of what it might be like one day in the peloton at that stage, just going back to your kind of injury, that kind of put an end to your mountain running career. When did that happen?
Speaker 1:2019. 2019. Wasn't a good year for me, injury wise.
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean, take us back to when you got that injury and and what went through your head, because clearly you were, you were running at a very, very high level, you know, representing your country and, uh, you know, still still very young, so you must have had big ambitions in that particular discipline.
Speaker 1:I had really big ambitions and I think that I was lucky. I mean, ironically, when you do mountain running you can do a lot of bike, because it really complements it. You need to be really strong and really aerobically fit, so they play hand in hand and my boyfriend was a cyclist so for me it's perfect. On his long rides I could go out and ride with him and then you know you're enjoying yourself but you're getting fit. And because when you're in a cleat your foot's fixed, it didn't aggravate the injury, so it meant I could still go on and do like a decent level of competition. I still went to Euros, I think it was after the injury. I still qualified, but it was. It's not the same.
Speaker 2:You can't really run freely down the hill because once you've done certain distance it fatigues and then your ankle rolls again yeah, yeah, okay, I I was going to ask you I'm glad you mentioned the, the similarities between mountain running and cycling, because I wasn't really sure how it translated what's a? What does a mountain running race involve, exactly?
Speaker 1:uh, there can be. There's two different types really. There's like climbing and descending ones, and then there's other ones which are just like the foot of the mountain to the summit. There are some as well which are descent only, but that's really not so common and how long is the effort typically? Well, when I was doing it, it was junior level, so it would have probably taken 40 minutes, I imagine yeah, but endurance based uh very, very intense transferable uh skills and uh yeah.
Speaker 2:So and then you kind of you said you moved on to triathlon. You went to leeds where, of course, which is very famous for producing top level triathletes. Was that a deliberate, uh choice to study there because of its heritage or with triathlon?
Speaker 1:yeah, I chose. I knew that when I went to university I wanted to prioritize sport really, and then leeds has really strong links to the british triathlon center there and there's also a british athletics hub that leads back it. So for me it was the perfect combination. I was doing both sports and you've got british, top british level centers in the city. I loved it. It's right next to the countryside, there's beautiful riding, there's a brownlee circuit where you can you know you train on a closed road.
Speaker 2:It's lovely and how far did you take the triathlon? How far did you go in the sport, would you say?
Speaker 1:The thing with triathlon was that my swim was always subpar in comparison with the best triathletes. My run on my bike could hold themselves, but my swim, as hard as I tried, was never as good. So I raced at national level and then I raced for GB in duathlon, which was definitely where the strength was. I raced box, you know, like I raced at a national level, but my swim meant that I was never going to get anywhere as a pro being an athlete.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can sympathise Well I'm sure, obviously, your swimming's way way better than mine, but, yeah, it's not something I've ever kind of taken to. But I guess the key thing, though, was you. You enjoyed the cycling aspect, and that was something you were already doing as part of your training. I read on Instagram and we talked about this before we started recording that you, you googled at some stage, uh, uh, how to get into road racing, or something like that, and you ended up big. Talk us through the moment you decided to Google that and what triggered that leap.
Speaker 1:It's a funny one because it's something that I'd always considered, but I think when you've never done it before and you look onto the sport from the outside, everyone looks so professional, like they've got nice matching kit and I don't know. I was always nervous to take the first step. And then my boyfriend was encouraging me and some of our friends like particularly one of our friends who she races and she was really passionate about it and she was like, well, what have you got to lose? You know why don't you go and give it a try? But because she's based in Australia, she didn't know the British system.
Speaker 1:Um, so then, yeah, I went away, had a google. My boyfriend had been racing since he was a kid, so it was a bit different for him, whereas for me, coming in as a cat four and wanting to try and you know, like to race competitively and to race against other women it's quite hard at the start because you need to find races which you know that you can actually enter, because most races tend to be like cat three, two to find a cat four race.
Speaker 2:It's quite challenging right, okay, so that was. That was a kind of a bit of a journey itself then just trying to navigate how to get into racing. I mean, I'm kind of interested that because we need more people to start racing in the uk, and so you found that challenging, even as somebody who kind of knew cyclists kind of was was into sport.
Speaker 1:Uh, you know, obviously incredibly fit already, but it was still a challenge nonetheless it was a challenge but, I think, definitely the best thing, because I wasn't sure whether or not to kind of go as a solo, unattached rider or whether to join a club, because by that point I was working, so it was quite hard for me to own club rides. But then, yeah, I joined drc, which was definitely the best decision I could have made, because they put me into a racing chat and some of the men you know they had a call with me and they talked me all through it told me like where you can get a jersey, because I didn't. Well, when you think about it's logical, but you can't obviously race in like ex-pros kit or pros kit or anything. You've got to go out and either have a plain jersey or a club jersey, and it's just all these little things that I would just never have considered that, yeah, being part of a club was really important yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So good advice to anybody thinking about getting into racing really try and join a club, and when you say erc, of course you mean edinburgh road club, whose jersey you wore in in many races last year. Do you remember that first road race? I think it was the according to british cycling, anyway, it was the jgcc road race and I think you finished 44th. So can you remember the moment you kind of took to the start line?
Speaker 1:yeah. So when I entered that, like I said, I really didn't know exactly how the systems worked and I hadn't realized that for open races anyone can enter. I'd assumed that there would still be two categories within the race and I turned up never having run rollers or anything to a car park full of people on rollers and there was only one female that I could see and she was in full team kit and turned out to be Ailey Shaw.
Speaker 1:So the best rider that Scotland has really like on the road domestically and I thought, wow, okay, like this is really out of my depth.
Speaker 1:But you know, we turned up and I was like, oh, it'll be okay. I went for a little roll up and down the road nearby and, yeah, and I started and yeah, I just wildly underestimated how fast the bunch is actually going until I like took my hand off the bars to drink and then the peloton like sped up and there was a gap and I thought, oh, it's okay, I'll close it in a second, naively, because they obviously all rode away from me but at the same time, like Ailey had got dropped in the same move and like some of the other men. So then it was a smaller group, but it was really nice and like I was having great fun, I was loving it, but I was also just like amazed at how fast people travel when they're in a bunch. Like that it's okay, like got a lot to learn, but no, it was a really fun day out. The guys that I was with.
Speaker 2:We were, you know, just doing like a little chain gang basically so you weren't deterred by by your 44th place or kind of making a you know a few rookie mistakes in that first race.
Speaker 1:Then no, we actually thought it was kind of funny in a way that here I turned off expecting to be like two kind of separate races really, and then thought, okay, now I understand why the organizer said are you sure you want to enter this when it's your first race? And I was totally like yeah, yeah. And he was kind of nervous, I think, to let me into a bunch when I just told him I've never done a bike race before and he was suggesting that maybe I did the APR Right, but I really wanted to do the bunch race and he was very nice about it and he let me do it. Yeah, I really enjoyed it and then went away and did some more.
Speaker 2:And you soon started winning, of course, because I think you won the Dunfermline Road Race and the West Lothian Grand Prix. I think they were the second and third races you did. Is that right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were. The fields were quite small, but they're still races. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And that must have given you enormous confidence. I mean, I guess you must have known your general fitness level, but of course this is a whole new discipline and a whole set of lessons you, you, needed to learn yeah, I think it's really interesting because it's quite different to when you're in a triathlon course.
Speaker 1:When you're in a triathlon the bike it can mean that you don't get a good result, but the result tends to have either come from a decision in the swim or the run, whereas in cycling you then need to work out the tactics on the bike to be able to win. And that was really fun just seeing in the races like the guys around me were really friendly, chatting away, like giving me advice and, yeah, I was loving it. Something totally new it's not just fitness, it's also like tactics and bike handling.
Speaker 2:So you kind of come into this whole realm of like things you can learn and ways you can improve yeah, so you've got that kind of mindset of kind of you want to figure out how to kind of meet the challenges that you face and and the fact that they're cycling is so multi-dimensional in that way, that's, that's part of the attraction for you yeah, I think, definitely, yeah.
Speaker 1:There's a thousand ways a race can be raced and you can't predict exactly how it's going to go before. So you can have a plan, but then you have to adapt on the road and it's like thinking on your feet, learning, and I think as long as yeah, as long as you're keen to learn, you can't go too far wrong yeah, you said your duathlon experience helped you to some degree because you were allowed to draft there.
Speaker 2:So clearly you were used to racing in like close quarters on the bike, but still, I guess there must have been, as you've kind of admitted already, so much to learn. Um, how do you think you have learned kind of how how to ride in the bunch, how to think quickly, uh, as you, as you're pedaling fast, your heart rate's beating.
Speaker 1:There's a kind of a lot to take on compared to, say, running or triathlon, which are kind of largely solo endeavors yeah, it's definitely a lot to take on, I think as well, because I started off in a club and then you move to a team. There's also the whole team dimension and the tactics and how that all kind of fits into place. But I mean the team that I was in were really supportive of me and like I was really open. I tried to be really open to say like there'll be things that I don't know, but tell me as soon as I'm doing it wrong and like I'll try and fix it. And being able to ride for ailey in the last couple of domestic races in the uk was like really special, because you know she knows exactly what she's doing and you're learning from like the best.
Speaker 1:Really so yeah, that was really good fun. But yeah, we realized quite quickly there were a few things that I would need to work on, particularly descending. My desire to go to the front on a descent was zero because I wasn't confident in how I could handle the bike and I think that I couldn't have gone much faster than I was going, probably because then I actually wouldn't have been in control. So that's something that we really went away and like looked at right from the kind of breakdown, basic steps and now, yeah, like now I'm loving it on the descents. I find it so fun, whereas if you tell that to me in January and the girls will testify this, if she said that in January and the girls will testify this, if she said that in January we went on camp, I'd have been out the back door in the first like five cabarets wow, okay, okay, and so that's something you've worked on.
Speaker 2:What with the team? Yeah, how do you? How have you approached descending, for example?
Speaker 1:yeah, I mean I think like because the two UCI races I did in Belgium last year were flat, that definitely didn't come to the forefront because obviously, like I can go down a hill. But we're talking about like more like technical, like technical descents or like really fast descents. I just never done it before, like it's not something you ever need to do, so we'd never practiced it, and it was really like going back to the basics and our mechanic finally enough, on our team, he really really helped me. He was like you need to kind of break this down now. Go step by step, like starting with really simple things like putting your weight through the outside leg and like moving the bike under you, like your body's not static on the saddle, whereas I would have just been like leaning the bike.
Speaker 1:The bike moves, but you don't necessarily need to move with it. You can move your bum. And then like looking through the corner, being like with your weight distributed correctly through the bike, the way you break. It's just like all the things, just like gradually adding them up the line you take and then slowly, the more you practice it. But we're talking about just like every single ride you do, to the point that suddenly you realize, oh, like I took that corner and I wasn't scared, and like I used to lock up because my shoulders were really tense. So they used to say, oh, like my granny could go down the descent faster than you. That's.
Speaker 1:I think it's a bit harsh, but also it is really not great and then now like yesterday and but yeah, in norway I think that was the first true testament, maybe Czech as well, but true testament to like how much it can improve just before you joined Alba, you rode the the Lancaster Grand Prix, um which, of course.
Speaker 2:I think by then you were already talking to Alba I think they're already maybe talking to you behind the scenes, from what I understand, but that was uh. That was the first time that I'd certainly noticed you. You rode to second place, riding as a solo rider, essentially in edinburgh rc colors. Was that a big breakthrough moment for you? It feels like you've had so many, but do you? Do you recall riding that race? What did that feel like?
Speaker 1:to come second, I think that was probably like the proudest I'd ever been of myself for like kind of believing when nobody else really did. Because since I'd started trying to cycle, I'd contacted, I'd emailed like all the conti teams that I could see, both in the uk and kind of in europe as well really, and a lot of them got back to me. But they were all kind of like you need to show your ability to race, you need to be racing like in the Belgian car messes, or at least in the national series. And at that point I couldn't do it because I only had cat 4 license, so you can't enter, so you're kind of on your own.
Speaker 1:But I'd spoken to Alba and, funnily enough, before the race they kind of asked me like semi-jokingly oh, like, what do you want to do? And I was like, well, I'd like to go for a result, nothing. Oh, you've said it like you need to back it up, yeah, and I just went for it. I thought, well, I've committed this much now that if I stop, well, that's not going to help at all. You know, let's just see frankie came past. I was like you just got to chase, you can't do anything else.
Speaker 2:I mean an incredible result in your first National Road Series race, obviously a big step up from what you've been doing before, but you just said that you'd already, at that stage, you were already writing to continental teams in the UK and abroad. So that strikes me that you had, and probably still have, a huge amount of belief in where you can take things in cycling.
Speaker 1:I think so, but I think part of probably what makes my situation quite unique is that I hadn't raced. But my boyfriend's a cyclist and he's you know, he's really passionate about the sport and talented, and I trained with him since we were, since we started dating when we were like 17, 18 so although I'd never raced, like I'd have been trying quite hard on bike rides to keep up with him and like maybe he'd have been doing efforts and honestly, I'm not doing them at the same pace as him but I would still try and do an effort behind him to make sure that I then didn't have to chase his wheel for like the next hour. So yeah, I hadn't ever raced, but I had a power meter and we knew people who cycled and then, once we actually started talking to them, we were like oh, like the numbers are actually they're okay, you know yeah we thought it would be possible.
Speaker 1:We just didn't know whether or not my level of skill was going to be a bit of an issue, but it was actually.
Speaker 2:It was okay yeah, okay, we should say you keep mentioning your boyfriend. It's sean flynn. For anyone who doesn't know, um on on the world tour, of course, with picnic postanel. So you had that confidence. You had that belief and then you joined alba after that uh, brilliant result in lancaster and you kind of backed it up, didn't? You was second in the rydell grand prix. But this year's been your first full season at UCI continental level, first full season of road racing full stop, yeah and the rise has just been, as I mentioned in the intro, just meteoric since then, hasn't it?
Speaker 2:I mean, result after result seems to have gone your way. Looking back over the last few weeks and months this year, kind of are there any big moments you think that have helped you get to where you've got to where you're now up there riding against the very you know, some of the very best riders in the world and and on a level with them?
Speaker 1:yeah, I definitely think so. I think maybe the first like real wake-up call was the first race we did in belgium and I'd had food poisoning the week before, so I already didn't feel great, but I just mentally was not prepared for suddenly coming into the bunch and it was okay. To be fair, I was pretty much dead on halfway through the field and there was about 150 girls and I don't know, maybe 40 50k into the race there was a split on the descent and the two wheels in front of me were the wheels that lost the gap and I naively thought, oh, it's okay, we'll get it back when we come out of this corner. Came out the corner and, yeah, the peloton, the front bunch, had gone and that was that. They'd gone and nobody wanted to work to bring it back. And that was like a real wake-up call as to like, okay, positioning really key, you can be so strong, but if you're in the wrong position, that's it, that's your race done. So that was definitely like a big learning curve of being like okay, you know. Like, yes, you've been ill, but that's not the reason that you got dropped. The reason you got dropped was because you were too far back and then, yeah, just going through the races, I think having Kate Richardson come across for me was like really important, because Moose Scraw and I watched back afterwards, like I watched back the replay, and in my head it had always been like when the World Tour girls were there, we just we just couldn't really compete with them. You know, like they're so strong. And then I was watching Kate at the front of the race and moments on the TV and I thought you know what, like we actually can be there, there, and that was like I feel like that was really the breakthrough moment.
Speaker 1:We then went to LC Jacobs afterwards and that was like the belief you can be there. But I was just way too keen. You know, like I didn't have a radio that was working. I didn't know which the QMs were, so I was just going as hard as I could up the climbs and, funnily enough, then when the World Tour girls went hard as they could up the final climb, I missed like the front five wheels. I just couldn't hold them. And that was like another call of like okay, you might feel really good, but you've got to be smart where you use your energy. You can't just go full whack. And then, yeah, I went to Pointe du raz and kind of tried to take everything that I'd done wrong and done right and put it into a race. And then the moment came to go for a solo break and I thought why not give it a shot? You know, and like I got caught, but equally, you know, like for me that was just I was loving it, I was having great which was funny because it was a gravel race.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean that's, yeah, it looks like an incredibly fun race. I mean, it's a very hilly race, but it's got these sectors of gravel, hasn't it? And at the bottom of each climb, kind of repeated circuits, and you went on this long break and only got overtaken at the end, didn't you? And lost out by seven seconds, still came second, which is an incredible result. But you know, and you look at the people there, you're racing against, like, uh, you know, celia Jury, who, who we were bigging up in the latest episode of the cycling podcast, uh, that I recorded, uh, recently, um, and uh, and other riders like that who were, just, you know, world-class athletes, and you're there in second place. And then, of course, you won not as big a race, but, uh, for britain it's a, it's a big event the, the lincoln grand prix, um, not long after. How was, how was that race for you?
Speaker 1:lincoln was really, really special because, like alba had never won a british series and lincoln is the most prestigious one.
Speaker 1:You know the crowds are great, the course is really fun. Like there were a lot of really strong girls turned out but we felt that like we would play our cards and see what we could do with it and like we had girls really, really committing to the rides, like amy and beth were up the road on attacks, mary was up the road and then kate and me. You know, like you're like these girls have put in so much work for us that you know you just feel like you really want to finish it off and yeah, coming into the final lap once we'd got our break going, I was just like I don't know you just you want to go all in for it and I think you don't really think it's so intense. You just like you can't not concentrate that it's only really when you cross the line and you realise, oh, like we actually crossed the line first wheel here, like moved on it. You know it was just really nice for the team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, massive moment for the team. Of course it had so much success with Ailey last year but of course, as you say, never quite got that road series win and um and and you. You got it in the in the biggest one possible. So a huge, huge step forward for the team and and for you, um. But it just seems like because of your results seem to get better and better. The norway result is just something else. Are you constantly kind of adjusting your expectations, your ambitions, like almost on a weekly basis at the moment?
Speaker 1:it's hard. It's one of those ones where I feel like I find it hard to predict how I will feel. But you just kind of have to trust your coach, because cycling training is actually quite different to the way like cycle and it's like cycling and triathlon is. And then we wanted to like we really wanted to target lincoln. So it made sense that like I'm in shape at the moment and that for me because I had less experience in the races that really in our initial plan we were targeting me like getting results in the second half of the season because we thought it would take quite a long time to be able to kind of get the initial stages of like positioning right to be able to be up there.
Speaker 1:But yeah, then the opportunity for Norway came up and I don't know like the course is beautiful. We looked at Bellevue and you know you've got these the longest climbs I've ever done in a race. And the girls because they're so strong, the pace is so high that it breaks the peloton up quite a lot. And then from there on, like I just think it's really fun, it's pure racing, like it's attacks going, it's like team tactics at its finest and you're just like you're on the back foot, but you're just trying to make the smartest decisions that you can really yeah, you strike me as someone just absolutely loves it.
Speaker 2:I mean, you're, you're clearly obviously a kind of got the sporting background, but you're, you're just immersed in every little detail, trying to think how you can improve on each race. You've really got a kind of a true growth mindset. In that sense is that fair.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's probably fair. I think that's probably just my personality.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm kind of really struck by the way you you know things like descending and kind of riding in a bunch. You're taking a very almost forensic approach to trying to break down every single lesson you've learned. You know, every slight mismove or kind of wasting of energy here you've you know, you've clearly lodged those in your brain and you're determined to to use those as lessons going forward. Talking about going forward, of course, we're on the verge of the tour of britain, uh, which you're racing. What are your thoughts going into this race, lauren? How are you approaching it?
Speaker 1:I don't really know what to expect. To be honest, I've watched. I've watched the Tour of Britain before obviously, and I was just a fan. I just thought it was so cool to see everyone so in the reality of actually being in it. It's really cool.
Speaker 1:But it'll also be really interesting because I've never done a World Tour race before and I know the standard's going to be really high and I feel like the World Tour teams they've brought a lot of sprinters, like very high class sprinters, which makes me wonder how they'll want to control the races, because they'll bring their teams that they want to bring for a reason and I think it'll be a lot about just seeing how it plays out, obviously seeing what our tactics are as well as a team like. I don't know how we're approaching it yet, but it's a great opportunity for us and we've got two stages in scotland, which really exciting means so many of our friends and family can come and, like the kelso stage, I rode to it last year for the minister of britain to watch, so I've done quite a bit of the course just by like tootling along outside of the road to watch them.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and those stages two and three stage two, of course, finishes on saltburn bank, which you'll know well, the domestic peloton will know well because it's been the finish of the nationals and, of course, the east cleveland classic for the last couple of years, are they are those stages that you're particularly looking forward to, given your characteristics yeah, I think they'll be really fun.
Speaker 1:I think yeah, because we've done salt burn before it'll be quite cool. I feel like it'll be really nice in a way, like we'll be proud to show like our roads and like the routes that we do off to the girls, like this is the uk, this is, this is how we ride, kind of here, like the style of our roads, because each country's roads are quite characteristic, like the different things about them. I mean our tarmac, for a start, is going to be different to some of the tarmac they've experienced, I imagine. But you know, like I think our descents and like our climbs are really nice, they're like rolling.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I'm excited, but to be honest, I'm excited for all the stages yeah, do you get starstruck at all when you line up against people like, I mean, you'll have lorraine oebus and, oh yeah, the olympic champion kristen faulkner there and others? Yeah, you do, you do. Yeah, you have to pitch yourself yeah, it's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1:Even when you see them in the booth I'm like that's so mad that we're actually in the same race as you guys. But it's also it's just crazy because you're like, well, they are just humans and like they're nice people. They're just insanely talented.
Speaker 2:Well, as are you, lauren, clearly Going forward now, I mean beyond the Tour of Britain. Where do you see yourself? I mean five years time, you're still only 25. Where?
Speaker 1:would you like to be cycling wise? I mean, like my dream, like going forward, be to turn Walter and to ride for teams, like you know, with like a focus particularly on like the attritional races and the climbing races, but just in a team where, like I can learn and like race for other people, have some shots for myself.
Speaker 2:You know, like just keep going, you know like that's always a dream to be a professional athlete. So being a professional cyclist is a lot, yeah, and I'm guessing you probably can't say much now, but is?
Speaker 1:there interest now from other teams giving you results. Hopefully we need to see, like largely happens, but hopefully yeah, I mean, how does that side of things work?
Speaker 2:I mean, do you have an agent or are you still that person? You were last year writing to UCI continental teams by yourself. How will you approach trying to build on what you've got and try and move on to the next level?
Speaker 1:I'm really fortunate because some of our friends like one of Sean's really close friends is friends with Anna Barnes, who's an agent, so I'm going to work with her. She's lovely, she's got so much experience and I think it's important to have someone who can guide you if you don't really know the way through yourself, so that's good. I've also got a grant with TCA in Strava and my mentor is the TCA's lawyer, which is she's also a pro cyclist. But that's also really handy because Cassie knows you know contracts inside and out and she's seen proper contracts and world tour teams and things before with other riders, so she knows what she's looking at yeah, great.
Speaker 2:Well, I wish you the best of luck with that, lauren. It's been like incredible just watching your, your rise so far and I hope it continues on that trajectory. And of course, I really look forward to watching, watching you on the BBC, on the Tour of Britain in the coming days and hopefully in some domestic races. Hopefully you won't. You'll still be around for a few domestic races yet before you maybe move on to higher levels. Yeah, but thank you so much for joining us, lauren. I really appreciate it, especially given you're only just back from the Tour of Norway and you've got Tour of Britain on the doorstep. So thank you so much. No, my pleasure. Just back from the tour of norway and you've got tour britain on the on the doorstep. So thank you so much. I'm up later. Thank you for having me. Thank you for listening to the british continental podcast. Find out more news and views about domestic road racing on wwwthebritishcontinentalcouk you.
