Lucy Gadd: From Christchurch to the Cobblestones
“I’d never been so cold in my life. I was crying. I couldn’t feel my hands. It just got to a point where it was beyond ridiculous”.
Last month, Lucy Gadd finished Paris-Roubaix, considered by most to be the most difficult and prestigious bike race ever. The quote above was not from that fateful day however, rather a casual Sunday training ride around the New Forest one morning.
Since the New Forest ride, Gadd has travelled around Europe, crossing paths with weird lycra-clad men, the ‘hell of the north’, and the greatest athlete of all time.
But on this day, Gadd is in Christchurch, sipping a pink lemonade at a local restaurant, talking to me about all that was previously mentioned.
Dorset is where the 21-year-old calls home, and where she began to cycle eleven years ago.
After playing many instruments and getting into dance as a child, the opening of Slades Farm Velodrome in Bournemouth founded a new passion project for Gadd.
She attended youth sessions at the facility and joined local cycling club Poole Wheelers shortly after.
Gadd started entering local events aged 12, but due to a lack of women, was roped in with the boys.
“It was me and one other girl - and 20 to 30 boys. It made me better because I had to keep up. I admit the first race I didn’t, but it’s quite fun to say that I used to beat them.”
Gadd realised she could compete at a high level three years later, jumping to national events.
However, the riders in her age group are some of the best racers in the world now.
“My year group was brutal, I had it hard. All the Welsh girls were absolute hitters, winning everything and that’s what’s made me the rider I am today. That's where my determination, motivation and never-give-up attitude came from.”
Gadd transitioned to road racing in 2018, after crashing heavily on the track two years in a row.
Four victories in her first six races at the Liv Epic outfit led to former Paris-Roubaix winner Magnus Bäckstedt inviting Gadd to his junior team, offering her the opportunity to race abroad with riders that compete at the top level today.
“Each day I got a bit better. I learnt how to ride in the peloton a bit better. Magnus is really good with tips on what to do. That was an awakening for me.”
Her run-ins with top cyclists wouldn’t end there though, as Gadd received a call from Magnus about an opportunity for the 2019 season.
“I was at Basingstoke Train Station when he called me. He said ‘Hi Lucy, I know you want to join my team; I’ve got a better offer. How about you join Sarah Storey’s team?’ and I was like ‘Yeah okay, cool!’”
Towards the end of 2019, Storey began to coach Gadd, which was a surreal experience for the youngster, who describes Sarah as ‘the best athlete of her generation’.
In 2021, key riders left to join teams at higher levels, meaning Gadd had little support in her penultimate season at Storey Racing.
Because of this, Gadd began to look for a different team to race at in the future.
“A few national teams came to me but I decided to turn them down. I had a good one-to-one chat with Sarah and I told her what my thoughts were. We set out a plan for the year after, so I stayed.”
"They said ‘We're going to move you up if you go anywhere. There's no point moving sideways to another national team.’”
And that's exactly what happened, as Gadd received an offer from French team Stade Rochelais Charente Maritime.
But the deal could only happen if Gadd achieved a top-three placing at the Tour De Loire Atlantique and the British Under-23 Time-Trial championships.
After winning the bunch sprint for third in France, her contract hung on the National Championships.
The race contained Pfeiffer Georgi, Elynor Backstedt and Abi Smith, who had raced at the highest level for the previous five months.
However, Gadd was more motivated than ever to achieve a podium place.
“That was the race that got me on my bike every day since October 2021, because I got fifth the year before and I was like ‘I can do better than that’.”
“I finished that race thinking ‘I was so slow’. I was expecting a time faster than that."
But when Smith crossed the line to finish fourth, Gadd knew the podium was sealed.
“I just cried. I was like ‘This isn’t supposed to happen! I was disappointed with my ride a minute ago’."
"Sarah doesn’t hug, but Sarah hugged me and I was like ‘Okay, that’s an achievement. She’s proud’.”
Not only did that secure a paid contract to race at a higher level for a foreign team in 2023, but her salary had risen too.
She first met her new teammates in December, helping Gadd overcome her nerves about integrating with a new team.
This year looks to be a season of milestones for Gadd, completing her first UCI classics in Spain in January.
“I lunged for the line in the sprint, finished 25th and got three UCI points. I really loved it and I was like ‘I want to do this again’, so I did.”
But her biggest feat yet was finishing Paris-Roubaix, which Journalist Gabriel Stróżyk explains is reserved for the best.
“To really express how special and difficult this race is, it’s famously been nicknamed ‘The hell of the north’, which really tells the story of how it’s raced.”
“Riding it is considered ‘hell’ for a lot of riders. Only a small percentage of professional riders can even finish the race within the time limit.”
Despite finishing over seventeen minutes behind winner Alison Jackson, the 21-year-old crossed the line in the Roubaix Velodrome to complete the great race, while taking Gadd back to her Track cycling roots.
"I rode on the velodrome and I was thinking ‘This feels foreign.’ because I haven’t done it in so long. I was like ‘It doesn’t feel right!’ but yeah, it was fun.”
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