Written by Lizzy Banks• 08:13• Pro Cycling Story

I was seven years into my medical degree with only 9 months left to complete my training. I had taken time out to intercalate, where you take a leave of absence to complete another degree, and I was just returning to medicine whilst finishing a masters in public health.



In August 2017, there was a month overlap between my two degrees. I returned to medical school to begin the last 9 months whilst finishing off my masters dissertation. The first week back, all I could think about was whether I really wanted to continue. I didn’t know what to do and had so much pressure and differing opinions from different sides. I would say to my husband that I really didn’t want to go back and he was so supportive saying that I didn’t have to. Then other family members said I should just carry on, “It’s only 9 months, It’s such a good qualification, etc etc”. It was so difficult, I spent the whole week trying to decide what to do and it was a really emotional time.



I spoke with friends and my in-laws who were very supportive. I was told it’s often the easier thing to just carry on and it can be the hardest decision to change direction and stray from the norm. The night before I was supposed to be returning to begin my final clinical placements I made the decision to leave. I emailed the medical school and said I won’t be coming in because I decided to leave the course, and immediately I felt a huge weight lift from my shoulders.



I actually loved the subject, and I still have a huge passion for medicine. If I hadn’t found cycling, I would have just continued, but I did find cycling and suddenly I had this incredible new opportunity that was going so well and I had the potential to maybe make it as a professional and with a huge aim to compete at the Olympics. I was already 25 and wasn’t getting any younger. I couldn’t throw away the opportunity and I didn’t want to regret it.



I didn’t know what was next for me at that point but within a few weeks I had signed my first professional contract with UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team and I had finished off my masters. Everything started falling into place.





I only started cycling four years ago. My very first race was in February 2015. A couple of years before that, my friend asked me to do a sportive. I didn’t have a bike but she knew I was the kind of person who was up for a challenge. She knew I’d always say yes to a ridiculous idea. The options were 100 kilometres or 100 miles (160km). I said, obviously I’d do 100 miles. I didn’t even own a bike, so, I went on to a classifieds website and found a bike for £100. I started riding 50 miles every day and had no idea what bonking was at that stage. I would go into a shop and get a can of coke and some sweets and still feel terrible. Then I’d stop for some more coke and sweets and hope that it got me home. I loved the challenge of the sportive so much.

After that I didn’t ride very much, it was only when my husband was finishing university and had some free time before he started work that I said we should go on an adventure. Why don’t we go to Dubrovnik and cycle to Venice? It’s only 700 miles! It was a crazy idea and we had so much fun. When we got home, I had a lot of fitness from the trip unsurprisingly. I started cycling to medical school. I was always late so had to ride as hard as I could to get there. I would go onto Strava and have all these QOM’s.

Our trip to Croatia where the cycling bug really started to bite.

I started thinking, I am getting faster, I would really like a nice bike. I had some money put away from when my grandma passed away. It was just enough to get a nice road bike. I was doing a psychiatric placement and instead of doing the work, I was googling what’s the best road bike to get and learning about groupsets. I decided to race the inter-university hill climb championships in Sheffield and came fifth. It took me by surprise and I thought, hmmm, maybe I’m alright because the people around me were really good British university level riders. I started thinking, I could go to the Olympics. I’m not even joking, that’s how my mind works. I came fifth in this 6-minute hill climb championships and I started thinking I can be the best in the world!

The inaugural women’s Tour de Yorkshire in 2015 was my first proper race after achieving enough points on the local circuit to get a start. It was a 50-mile race and I was hardly riding that distance at that time. I was dying, clinging on for dear life. Towards the end of the race, my gear cable snapped but I didn’t care, I was loving the suffering and sprinted hard in the only gear I had!

I started racing the national series after that and got twelfth in my first race. Then did the national championships one week later and came 23rd. I had been spotted by a domestic British team just before this which had given me a huge boost. It was beginning to get out of control and cycling was taking over my life.

I started racing the UK National Road Series in 2016 and got third in the first race. I was flying. Then in the second race, I had a bad crash and sustained a terrible concussion that took a few months to get over. I was desperate to come back and my comeback race was six days before my wedding. I was in the break, going well. Then I punctured. I got a new wheel and punctured again. My husband to be was the mechanic in the car pacing me back, as I just had the bunch in sight again, he said he saw a massive rock in the middle of the road and thought ‘I hope Lizzy doesn’t hit that.’ He looked through the back window and saw me go flying. I landed on my head. I had a 6cm laceration to my scalp and road rash and scratches everywhere. Six days before my wedding! Oh, and that also all happened on Gabriel’s birthday! If you look closely to these wedding photos, you’ll see plasters.

I worked really hard to come back the next year. I won the first race in the National Road Series and then went on to win the whole series overall. That was massive for me. It gave me this sense of belief that I’m doing things right and making progress. Put in the hard work and in time the results will come. It was a bold move to leave medical school. So many people said I should carry on but I wasn’t happy and life is just too short to not chase your dreams.

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Last modified: Jan 19, 2020

Tags: bigla