![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Untitled_design_61_1_b29276c5-3ad1-4243-b182-155645784136.png\")
Lenehan made her debut for Lidl-Trek at last August’s Tour de Pologne. Image by Szymon Gruchalski\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Cycling, particularly women\u2019s 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\u2019s 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 \u201clongest ride being a 5km cycle\u201d to signing a pro contract with the sport\u2019s new richest team, Lidl-Trek. \u201cLife is sometimes surprising,\u201d the soon-to-be 28-year-old quips.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u2019s won Gran Fondos, gravel races, and most recently inked a contract to become a professional cyclist. \u201cI had the ambition to make a living from being an athlete, but when I started cycling at first that wasn\u2019t my ambition. I really was not a cyclist!\u201d She is now, though, and Lidl-Trek are confident of big things.<\/p>\n
Athletic dreams<\/p>\n
Just like cycling did a decade-and-a-half later, Lenehan stumbled upon hurdling. \u201cYou know how it is in primary school when you do everything,\u201d she tells Rouleur and Domestique at her team\u2019s winter training camp in December. \u201cAthletics is what I liked the most and you\u2019d do long jump, high jump, everything, and I like the hurdles the most, was also good at it, and just kept at it.\u201d She was a strong competitor, but not quite good enough. That\u2019s when a career in sport nutrition presented itself, and today she has clients across Europe, most of whom compete in cycling and triathlon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In November 2022 she moved back to Ireland \u201cto be closer to the family again\u201d, 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. \u201cHe said, \u2018You should really join our team \u2013 you\u2019ve really got something in cycling\u2019,\u201d she recounts. \u201cI said why not and started racing at the amateur level in Ireland.\u201d
In no time Lenehan carved out a reputation for herself \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came as a bit of a surprise to me that I was loving the sport so much and that I was actually getting results,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t 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\u2026 it\u2019s a hard sport, not easy\u2026 but I guess I\u2019m 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 \u2013 I didn\u2019t search for it! \u2013 but I\u2019m so glad it did.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long before Lenehan was attracting attention, but it took her a while to believe in her own capabilities. \u201cMy endurance back then [in her hurdling days] was not the best so it\u2019s still a mystery to me how my muscle fibre switched from fast-twitch to more [slow-twitch] endurance,\u201d she says. Whenever people showered her with plaudits, she mostly batted them away. \u201cWhen I won the amateur gravel Worlds there were so many people around me saying, \u2018You have talent, you\u2019re good, you\u2019re strong\u2019, but I think that only has a meaning when you start to believe it yourself deep down, and I think before then I didn\u2019t believe it. \u2018People are saying this to be nice’, I thought, \u2018and they don\u2019t really believe it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The truth is, they weren\u2019t just being nice \u2013 they had spotted in Lenehan what Lidl-Trek soon would. \u201cThe first time [the team contacted her] was when a friend of mine said that Trek were interested in me and they\u2019d like to test me,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI was like, \u2018You\u2019re joking. Me? Trek? I don\u2019t really see the link.\u201d It was no joke. Michael Rogers, the women\u2019s team\u2019s manager, called her, expressed their interest, and invited her to a training camp last winter. \u201cEverything started from there,\u201d she smiles.<\/p>\n
Lenehan made her debut for Lidl-Trek at last August’s Tour de Pologne. Image by Szymon Gruchalski\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
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. \u201cThe 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,\u201d she says. \u201cI realised, \u2018OK, I can get somewhere. I hope\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lidl-Trek\u2019s gamble<\/p>\n
What Lidl-Trek expect from Lenehan hasn\u2019t been outlined. The Irishwoman is a project. One that might succeed, one that might not. It\u2019s a risk, but the rewards could be great. \u201cIf we\u2019re 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,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat I\u2019m missing is race experience.\u201d It\u2019s worth pointing out that to date she\u2019s only ridden five days of UCI road races.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still discovering who I am as a rider, but if you ask me what one race I\u2019d like to win, it\u2019d be Paris-Roubaix,\u201d she goes on. \u201cI\u2019m happy to see where the team send me, even though I\u2019d like to do Strade Bianche for obvious reasons coming from the gravel.\u201d So much is new to Lenehan. \u201cI discovered the time trial bike a month ago,\u201d she reveals. \u201cThat\u2019s something I want to explore and know more about. I like the idea of pushing yourself against the clock. After this year I\u2019ll know more about what type of rider I am and find my specialty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where Lenehan has an upper hand on her colleagues \u2013 some of whom like Amanda Spratt have been competing for two decades \u2013 is in nutrition. \u201cMy understanding of nutrition, the body, physiology and everything else has helped me to become stronger on the bike,\u201d she says. \u201cI have an awareness of how to fuel on the bike, and how the body works, and I think that was also a strength.\u201d Working with Lidl-Trek\u2019s own nutritionists, Lenehan sees the potential for even stronger gains. \u201cAs my current nutritionist said, it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the moment, Lenehan has no plans to park her own job as a nutritionist, but she\u2019s conscious she might have to reassess that decision in the future. \u201cI\u2019ve decided that the people I\u2019m still coaching to pursue coaching them,\u201d she says. \u201cBut if I start to feel that it compromises my recovery and performance on the bike, I\u2019ll stop.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
What Lenehan has to adapt to the most is remembering who she, the Lidl-Trek neo-pro, is nowadays. \u201cI have to get used to saying that my job is a cyclist,\u201d she laughs. \u201cI 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 \u2018nutritionist\u2019 by habit, but now I guess it\u2019s \u2018professional cyclist\u2019 I need to put in. It\u2019s funny \u2013 I guess my jobs have changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cover image: Ryan Bodge\/Lidl-Trek<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cycling, particularly women\u2019s cycling, has its fair share of inspiring novice-to-pro stories, tales of athletes taking up the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-378331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}