Former world champion Lizzie Deignan has announced her immediate retirement after confirming she is pregnant with her third child.<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old is one of Britain’s most successful road cyclists, with 43 professional wins and an Olympic silver medal from the London 2012 Games.<\/p>\n
The 2015 world champion, whose other major wins include the first women’s edition of the fabled Paris-Roubaix one-day race in 2021, said last year she would retire from cycling at the end of this season.<\/a><\/p>\n But she has now brought forward her decision because of her pregnancy, posting a photo of a babygrow on Instagram, external<\/a> captioned: ‘A new chapter in the Deignan story’, while her Lidl-Trek team announced her retirement.<\/p>\n “I have this life outside of cycling that gives me so much fulfilment and so much love,” said Deignan.<\/p>\n “Often people say, ‘Retire on the top.’ But I have no ego or necessity to retire at the top. I’m really happy to go full circle and to have ended my career as somebody that helps other people win bike races again.”<\/p>\n