The Trinidadian speaks openly about her difficult exit from the WorldTour, Olympic dreams, and balancing road with track
Campbell alongside her Smurfit-Westrock team-mates at the Tour of Britain. Image: SWPix
SWPix; Cor Vos
I just happened to be standing next to the Liv-AlUla-Jayco bus ahead of the first stage of the 2026 Tour of Britain Women conducting another interview when Teniel Campbell rode up, parked her bike and climbed the steps without invitation.
“Look who it is?!” she shouted — or something similar that my microphone is not expensive enough to pick up clearly. Warm greetings bounced back at the rider who had spent four seasons with the Australian squad between 2021 and 2024. A couple of minutes later, with a smile on her face, Campbell rode back down the street to the much smaller camper van belonging to the team she is now racing for.
“The love is the same. I mean these girls, they are really good friends of mine still,” Campbell told Escape a few minutes later in the mixed zone. “Nothing changed really, just the colours. To be able to still be going on the bus and get the same welcoming feeling, it’s quite good. Everyone hasn’t seen me in quite some while too, so yeah, I think it was really good that I went and said hi to the staff, to the riders and everything like this.”
The rider from Trinidad & Tobago has been a pioneering, barrier-breaking rider since moving to Europe in 2018 at the start of her career. As one of a very few riders from the Caribbean and riders of colour to ever turn professional, she has often spoken about her hopes to inspire others through her career. After almost two years away, the Tour of Britain marked her return to WorldTour racing.
UCI launches new strategy to further internationalise pro cycling
UCI World Cycling Centre Director Jacques Landry says that the new initiative aims to give riders from emerging nations the tools to succeed.
Campbell made her way to Europe through the UCI’s World Cycling Centre programme in 2018 after success in regional championships as a teenager. Her raw talent has always been clear to see, and Campbell has become more technically gifted as her career has progressed. Strong results in her first two years in Europe, including wins at Kreiz Breizh Elites and the Tour of Thailand, netted her a contract with the Italian Valcar – Travel & Service team and then Team BikeExchange in 2021, where she spent four seasons and became a key member of the squad, winning six times and taking part in the world’s biggest races.
However, Campbell says she felt “lost” after four years racing in the WorldTour and seven away from home and the security of family and friends. The six-time national champion suffered a horror crash at the end of 2022 during the final sprint to the line at the Caribbean Road Championships, suffering a partial patella tendon rupture and another fracture. Five months away from racing followed, but more damaging was the mental toll over the coming months and years.
This post is for paying subscribers only
Subscribe now
Already have an account? Sign in
Did we do a good job with this story?
👍Yep
👎Nope