The world road race champion Lizzie Armitstead likes to play down her driven side – perhaps because the relentless focus that has earned her the No1 spot in women’s cycling this year comes so naturally to her – but there is the faintest hint of an ironic chuckle in her voice as she discusses Sunday’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony in Belfast. “This time around I thought I’d better show up. I’ve been invited several times before but I’ve always turned it down.”
There is a good reason why the Yorkshirewoman has preferred to remain in the saddle rather than in the limelight in previous Decembers: the hard yards put in at the turn of the year can make the difference months later when titles are won and lost. “It’s the weekend before Christmas which is a crucial period in your training, so you want to duck back home at the last minute to avoid losing time. If you come back several days before it’s a long time to be in the UK enjoying things off your bike.”
Armitstead admits that her place on the shortlist alongside luminaries such as Jessica Ennis-Hill, Tour de France double champion Chris Froome and, more controversially, Tyson Fury, came as “a complete shock”. She says: “I’m surprised, to be honest. It wasn’t on my radar. I hadn’t thought about it. It’s a nice bonus but it’s not what you train every day for. I’m proud on a wider scale, that there are two cyclists on the list, and having women’s cycling represented has to be a good thing. It’s nice to be recognised on a [wider] sporting level rather than a purely cycling level. They tell you a week before they go public, and I really wasn’t expecting it.”
The case for voting for Armitstead is clear: her world title was won with surgical precision and utter physical dominance, and it should not be seen in isolation. The rainbow jersey reflected an ascent to the pinnacle of her sport in which she took three rounds of the World Cup, where she repeated the overall victory she achieved in 2014. All of which sets her up as the favourite for next year’s Olympic Games road race in Rio. Moreover, her world title was achieved without team support, at a distance from a British Cycling establishment that has not seen fit to back her with the kind of long-term plan that took Mark Cavendish to the title in 2011.
It is three months, give or take a week, since Armitstead triumphed in a gripping final lap at Richmond, Virginia and the days have flown by to the extent that she wishes she had a Harry Potter-style time-turner to slow down the hours. Her five-week break to refresh mind and body is long past, and she is back in the winter routine of putting the miles in.
“I could do with a stopwatch to stop time. It feels as if the season is immediately around the corner. I think about it all the time.” The first part of her season, devoted to the one-day Classics such as the Tour of Flanders, begins on 8 February at the Tour of Qatar, and runs through to the start of May. Here she takes a break, in relative terms – four or five days off the bike – before the run-in to Rio begins in earnest.
Beyond the invitation to Sunday’s big night out – a double celebration as she turned 27 on Friday – the rainbow jersey has brought change to her life. “Every morning I get a reminder I’m world champion when I put the jersey on for training. I feel pride every time. I haven’t got used to it yet. I pass shop windows on my bike, look at my reflection and think, ‘That’s me’. I’m happiest when I’m on my bike – all the circus all round it makes me anxious and tired, riding the bike is what I love.
“In previous off-seasons I haven’t spoken to a manager, sponsor or agent for several weeks. Now I’m on the phone every other day. It’s difficult because I needed that mental break as much as a physical one and that’s the one thing I haven’t had this year. I haven’t been able to switch off completely from cycling, but that’s part of being a professional athlete. If you want to be a pro, it’s an all-round thing, not just being on your bike.”
Armitstead’s last challenge, Richmond, and her future one, Rio, are completely different in their demands, “night and day”, she believes. “In Richmond you needed to be a powerful, sprint-based athlete, for Rio you need to be a climber.” The severity of the Rio course, with its two major ascents per lap, has led British Cycling to call up her former trade and GB team-mate Emma Pooley for the time trial, but potentially the former world time trial champion could play a key support role for Armitstead.
Already, the need to be a subtly different cyclist is foremost in her mind. “I’ve started changing my training, putting in climbs when I choose my routes. It’s a mental thing as much as physical, I need to be happy and comfortable with more climbing than I’m used to.” Compared with the intense tactical suspense of Richmond, where patience was a requirement as well as pure strength, Rio will be a “war of attrition”, says Armitstead. “There will be bodies everywhere. There will be no tactics, no teams left at the end, because the course will do all the damage.”
That, she clearly relishes, partly for its simplicity compared with the more complex battle last September, partly for the novelty of the challenge. “It’s good to have something different to get your teeth into. A team-mate said to me, ‘At least you can put all your eggs in one basket’ for Rio. You can go with an ‘all-in’ attitude. The Olympic champion should be the best in the world, the strongest rider in the world, and the Rio champion will be that. I know if I go in the best shape possible, I can come away with gold.”
