‘“Being blessed with a talent doesn’t proscribe you from having to deal with all the other stuff that life brings,” says Philippa York when asked about the transition process from being the cyclist Robert Millar.

“It always amazed me that somehow people, fans, whoever thought that because you could ride, run or jump faster then you never had any of the issues that ordinary people had or will have.” And there in a nutshell is why her story matters: it is about much, much more than sport.

Robert Millar was one of the greatest British cyclists ever, and one of the finest of Scottish sports stars, winning the King of the Mountains prize in the Tour de France in 1984, and finishing fourth overall that year, second in the 1985 and 1986 Tours of Spain, and in the 1987 Giro d’Italia. There were three mountain stage wins in the Tour, all in the Pyrenees. Now, York does not want that to be forgotten but she feels it is time that her new identity was put in the public sphere.

A statement on Thursday night on the cyclingnews.com website revealed to the world that, as York said: “As much as I’ve guarded my privacy over the years there are a few, I believe obvious, reasons to why I haven’t had a public ‘image’ since I transitioned. Gratifyingly, times have moved on from 10 years ago when my family, friends and I were subjected to the archaic views and prejudice that some people and certain sections of the tabloid media held.”

Asked how she has dealt in recent years with the fact that the world of cycling had one image of her and she had another, York says: “I can only deal with that by putting the Robert part of my life into one box and the life I live now into another.

“What I did before wasn’t done by the person I am now so it’s not a case of changing history. I think for most people looking at this from the outside that’s the easiest way for them to process it. That’s my opinion – others may disagree and that’s fine.”

She adds: “I’ve known I was different since I was five years old, [but] what that difference was and how to deal with it has taken a fairly long time to come to terms with – all I will say is it hasn’t been an overnight process. There’s no one story line that fits everyone. For me personally, until given the right information there wasn’t a feeling of being trapped, rather it was more a case of the life I was living wasn’t the one I felt I ought to be having.”

Robert Millar has been a prominent writer – for example on these pages putting together the annual guide to the teams of the Tour de France – and also worked as a national coach in 1997. In the next few weeks, York will work providing commentary on the Tour de France for ITV4, which prompted her decision to go public. As for the future, she will continue in the same vein.

Robert Millar became the first British rider to win the King of the Mountains jersey at the 1984 Tour de France, when he finished fourth overall. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

“Hopefully my occasional writing will continue, a return to doing some media and more cycling-related things are a possibility. I’ll assess how the commentary with ITV4 goes and then take it from there but it would be good to expand my horizons.”

This is not a campaigning move but the fact that York has become the first high‑profile former cyclist to go public about making the step of gender transition may, she hopes, help a sport that has always been conservative in its attitude to gender and sexuality move forwards. This is a sport that lagged behind when it came to letting women compete, where there is still a massive disparity between men’s and women’s cycling in cash and prestige and where only last week a professional rider felt able to make disparaging comments about podium girls in an interview before being slapped down.

LGBT issues are barely ever raised in cycling, which is why York’s going public is a key moment; she is taking the sport into new territory.

“Hopefully, the way that attitudes have progressed in general towards sexuality and gender issues, then some of that understanding and tolerance will gradually filter down into the realms of sport.

“It’s a fairly ridiculous situation that there are no prominent gay people in the mainstream sports. It’s a crazy situation that the rest of the world has percentages of gay, lesbian trans people and yet sport doesn’t.

“It’s been the case that anyone thought to be different has been singled out for ridicule or presented as some kind of danger and yet outside of sport that attitude isn’t tolerated.

“It’s strange but at least nowadays the opportunity to be listened to and explain some of the issues encountered are available.

“Sport has generally lagged behind in its attitudes to anything other than the heterosexual norm, in that context cycling has been one of the sports most resistant to change,” says York. “It’ll catch up eventually.”