Cycling, particularly women’s cycling, has its fair share of inspiring novice-to-pro stories, tales of athletes taking up the sport later in life and then excelling at the highest level. But Marine Lenehan’s story is noteworthy for just how rapid her rise from not owning a bike to the WorldTour has been. Or, as she put it, from her “longest ride being a 5km cycle” to signing a pro contract with the sport’s new richest team, Lidl-Trek. “Life is sometimes surprising,” the soon-to-be 28-year-old quips. 

The abridged version of her story begins when she was 10. Actually, a little before that. Born in Kanturk, Ireland, she moved to Normandy with her French mother when she began school. Aged 10 she began competing in hurdles, and before long was representing France at a youth level. But a professional future in track and field never materialised, and a career in nutrition beckoned. It was only in February 2023 that she started cycling, and she immediately positioned herself in the fast-track lane: less than three years later, she’s won Gran Fondos, gravel races, and most recently inked a contract to become a professional cyclist. “I had the ambition to make a living from being an athlete, but when I started cycling at first that wasn’t my ambition. I really was not a cyclist!” She is now, though, and Lidl-Trek are confident of big things.

Athletic dreams

Just like cycling did a decade-and-a-half later, Lenehan stumbled upon hurdling. “You know how it is in primary school when you do everything,” she tells Rouleur and Domestique at her team’s winter training camp in December. “Athletics is what I liked the most and you’d do long jump, high jump, everything, and I like the hurdles the most, was also good at it, and just kept at it.” She was a strong competitor, but not quite good enough. That’s when a career in sport nutrition presented itself, and today she has clients across Europe, most of whom compete in cycling and triathlon. 

In November 2022 she moved back to Ireland “to be closer to the family again”, settling in Wicklow. Three months later, she went on a date with her current partner who suggested that, like himself, Lenehan should take up the sport; she had previously competed in the odd triathlon. “He said, ‘You should really join our team – you’ve really got something in cycling’,” she recounts. “I said why not and started racing at the amateur level in Ireland.”
In no time Lenehan carved out a reputation for herself – as a winner. Within half-a-year she had finished second at the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships and became European Gran Fondo champion. In 2024 and 2025 she bolstered her growing palmares further with wins in the amateur Gravel World Championships, in high-profile Gran Fondos (Strade Bianche) and domestically in Ireland (Criterium and eSports champion). Wherever she went, whatever the discipline, she succeeded. She was as shocked as everyone else.

“It came as a bit of a surprise to me that I was loving the sport so much and that I was actually getting results,” she says. “I didn’t pursue it because I was getting stronger and getting more and more results, but because I was falling in love with the sport even more. The thrill of pushing your body… it’s a hard sport, not easy… but I guess I’m the type of person who once they have an idea in their head has to try to go until the end of it and do the best they can. Cycling just appeared out of nowhere for me – I didn’t search for it! – but I’m so glad it did.”

It wasn’t long before Lenehan was attracting attention, but it took her a while to believe in her own capabilities. “My endurance back then [in her hurdling days] was not the best so it’s still a mystery to me how my muscle fibre switched from fast-twitch to more [slow-twitch] endurance,” she says. Whenever people showered her with plaudits, she mostly batted them away. “When I won the amateur gravel Worlds there were so many people around me saying, ‘You have talent, you’re good, you’re strong’, but I think that only has a meaning when you start to believe it yourself deep down, and I think before then I didn’t believe it. ‘People are saying this to be nice’, I thought, ‘and they don’t really believe it’.”

The truth is, they weren’t just being nice – they had spotted in Lenehan what Lidl-Trek soon would. “The first time [the team contacted her] was when a friend of mine said that Trek were interested in me and they’d like to test me,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘You’re joking. Me? Trek? I don’t really see the link.” It was no joke. Michael Rogers, the women’s team’s manager, called her, expressed their interest, and invited her to a training camp last winter. “Everything started from there,” she smiles.


Lenehan made her debut for Lidl-Trek at last August’s Tour de Pologne. Image by Szymon Gruchalski/Getty Images

Lenehan continued to rave gravel and Gran Fondos, and began as a stagiaire in August. She made her debut for the team at the three-stage Tour de Pologne Women, and raced two one-day races. “The second time I felt that feeling [of knowing she was good enough] was when I did my first professional race and I actually did my job as a teammate and completed the race,” she says. “I realised, ‘OK, I can get somewhere. I hope’.”

Lidl-Trek’s gamble

What Lidl-Trek expect from Lenehan hasn’t been outlined. The Irishwoman is a project. One that might succeed, one that might not. It’s a risk, but the rewards could be great. “If we’re talking short-term ambitions, next year I want to grow as a rider, become stronger, smarter, and spend as much time in the peloton as I can,” she says. “What I’m missing is race experience.” It’s worth pointing out that to date she’s only ridden five days of UCI road races. 

“I’m still discovering who I am as a rider, but if you ask me what one race I’d like to win, it’d be Paris-Roubaix,” she goes on. “I’m happy to see where the team send me, even though I’d like to do Strade Bianche for obvious reasons coming from the gravel.” So much is new to Lenehan. “I discovered the time trial bike a month ago,” she reveals. “That’s something I want to explore and know more about. I like the idea of pushing yourself against the clock. After this year I’ll know more about what type of rider I am and find my specialty.”

Where Lenehan has an upper hand on her colleagues – some of whom like Amanda Spratt have been competing for two decades – is in nutrition. “My understanding of nutrition, the body, physiology and everything else has helped me to become stronger on the bike,” she says. “I have an awareness of how to fuel on the bike, and how the body works, and I think that was also a strength.” Working with Lidl-Trek’s own nutritionists, Lenehan sees the potential for even stronger gains. “As my current nutritionist said, it’s a strength and we can go into different things and focus on more supplements maybe, or more specifics about nutrition, rather than general macros in and out.”

For the moment, Lenehan has no plans to park her own job as a nutritionist, but she’s conscious she might have to reassess that decision in the future. “I’ve decided that the people I’m still coaching to pursue coaching them,” she says. “But if I start to feel that it compromises my recovery and performance on the bike, I’ll stop.” 

What Lenehan has to adapt to the most is remembering who she, the Lidl-Trek neo-pro, is nowadays. “I have to get used to saying that my job is a cyclist,” she laughs. “I went on holiday in the off-season, and for some of the visa forms you have to fill in your job title. I was putting ‘nutritionist’ by habit, but now I guess it’s ‘professional cyclist’ I need to put in. It’s funny – I guess my jobs have changed.”

Cover image: Ryan Bodge/Lidl-Trek