027: Elite Cycling, Pro Racing, and Team Tactics — Inside the Peloton with Lucy Shaw

Former British pro cyclist Lucy Shaw takes us inside the world of elite women’s cycling—from grueling training weeks and intense stage races to navigating life as the youngest rider on a pro team. What does it really take to compete at the highest level of women’s professional cycling? Lucy joins us to unpack team dynamics, the unique challenges of the women’s pro circuit, and even debunk some of those tactical moves you see on TV during the Tour de France. From high-speed criteriums to multi-stage races across Europe, she offers a rare behind-the-scenes look inside the peloton. We also dive into her unforgettable win in London, what it was like riding alongside Olympians, and how the sport continues to fuel her passion—even off the racecourse. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00.75)
When I was racing, was seen as a positive to be super, super lean and like to not have a period was like seen as like a positive thing, meant that you have really fit, really healthy. And now actually that's like a huge red flag and people are more aware of that. And yeah, it's definitely something that, you know, if I was to have a conversation with my younger self or if I was to see some like younger 18, 19 year old girls, like not eating properly on their rides or not fueling properly when they get in from training, it's something that I would love to be like.

This is not the best way to go about it and for like your longevity and your long-term health is, yeah, so important.

Have you ever wondered why people get so hyped about their favorite sports teams? Well, it turns out it's not just about the game. It's about the community. My name is Teryn.

And I'm Ambre. Welcome to Almost Fans, the sports podcast that's fun, a little bit educational, and will give you plenty to say when you're trying to keep up with those diehard sports fans in your life.

Speaker 3 (01:07.982)
Hello, Almost fans. Today we're talking pro cycling with someone who's lived it from the inside, Lucy Shaw. She's a former pro cyclist from the UK who raced at the elite level. And now we have the enormous pleasure of working with her at Trek Travel. Ambre's in my day job. We're getting into everything from the unglamorous parts of pro training.

to the strategy and teamwork behind what looks like a solo sport. But first, before we get into the saddle, we're kicking things off with this week's hat trick, our top three segment. Today, we're sharing the top three pieces of advice we'd give our younger athletic selves. Whether you are a serious athlete or just surviving gym class, there's probably something here you can relate to too. So let's jump in with yours, Ambre.

I think I was in the middle, by the way, not a thriving athlete, but definitely surviving gym class. My first piece of advice would be enjoy the relationships in sports. I totally did this. It was my favorite part of playing sports, but it is the thing by far that I miss the most. So I would love to go back and just be like, hey, eat this up because you just don't get that again. know, playing hard.

working really hard, training really hard with a group of people you really like toward one specific goal. You do that in work and projects and things, but it's not quite the same as a sport. I imagine maybe when you play your volleyball leagues and whatever, you're trying to get to the playoffs or to the whatever, but man, I'm

Mostly you're just trying to not lose your friendships over sports.

Speaker 3 (03:00.91)
Me as a competitive athlete.

Are you total jerk on the volleyball court?

I'm not a jerk on the outside, but on the inside I am telling my friends off, like, you should have got that, what are you doing, pay attention, I can't believe you just missed that pass, but on the outside I'm like, it's okay, keep it up, we're gonna get the next.

I hope they listen to this. By the way, I totally get that. I say relationships, but in the heat of a game, we're business. We're trying really hard. This is not social while we are actually performing the sport. It's on the perimeter of the sport. But while things are going on, you better be paying attention and trying really hard.

And try hard, for sure. That's actually a really good lead into my first one because my number three thing that I would tell myself again, and just remind myself is to stay focused on the fundamentals, but also outwork everybody else. So like as an athlete, well, I'll say this, kind of like what you said, you may not always be the fastest or the biggest out there. And actually I was neither of those. So.

Speaker 3 (04:14.482)
Really what I was was a great teammate and a great player because I did the small things. I outworked people.

I can see that. Yeah, I can totally see that. My next one is from Mr. Lasso be a goldfish. I think about this now, especially when I play hockey, because I'm not super good at it and I try really hard. But even back when I was playing sports that I was pretty decent at soccer and tennis is what I played in high school. But if I missed a ball, if it was my fault, you know, the other team scored a goal. I always played defense and soccer. man, I would so get in my head like,

Maybe I had people on my team who were like, Teryn, I'm like, they're totally mad at me for missing the, or doing the whatever. But I would just get so like down on myself. You you're also a teenager. So things just hit harder back then. But I would try to, I say this to my kids sometimes, does it work? I have no idea, probably not. But I would tell my younger self to be a goldfish. And if I don't have a good game or if I make a mistake to just try and forget it and move on.

I was going to say this in the last one. Am I thinking about that about my friends sometimes? Certainly. Am I the hardest on myself though? For sure. If I miss some like a pass or something and I just like miss a serve, my goodness, heaven forbid I miss a serve. I'm so mad at myself. Like I ruined the game for everyone. It's good though. It's a good one. Okay. My number two thing that I would tell my younger self is always pack an extra sports bra.

I can see that about you.

Speaker 3 (05:50.358)
and socks because future me is gonna be so grateful for that because and also Teryn while you're at it why don't you just go ahead and pack your sports bag the night before because you're gonna be running late in the morning so just get it done the night before and my gosh I will never forget the time that I had to wear a regular bra during a basketball game it was horrible

That would be so miserable and painful. I mean, I cannot picture why that would be a problem for me, but for you, that would be devastating.

was horrible. Usually people have extra socks, but like very rarely do people have extra sports bras.

I'm pretty sure I was faced with the same conundrum when I was in high school, not that you're saying that, and I opted to just go without. That was better for me. I had zero problems. I have a black guy at the end.

No, yeah, that was like just not it was yeah, like the same problem. No problems here. No discomfort My third piece of advice So here's a little bit of irony I was so proud of myself for coming up with my last one was be a goldfish. This one is Football is not

Speaker 3 (06:53.603)
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:09.726)
life. Yes, that's actually kind of like my first one too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know, so like in Ted Lasso, Danny, you know, is like football is life. It's the thing that he always said. But there were times I think just like the be a goldfish, I just got caught up in, know, this is so important. It's my team. I feel responsible for, you know, fulfilling this duty, you know, and if I mess up, even though I'm trying really anyway, I just I put a lot of pressure on it when I really didn't need to be.

Yeah. Yeah. Mine is you're more than your sport. like injuries, bad season or quitting a sport. I actually did quit basketball after my junior year and I loved basketball, but it's, doesn't make you a failure. What did I say before? Quitting doesn't make you a failure. I don't remember what I said that first time, but yeah, I just think like who you are off the court matters more like as a person.

Yeah, I'm going to take these piece of advice and bottle them and then dole them out to my children over the coming years. Maybe they'll learn and they'll be better than we were.

Let's do.

Speaker 3 (08:19.694)
Probably not.

Speaker 2 (08:28.93)
Today we're talking with Lucy Shaw, a former professional British cyclist who rose through elite ranks and made her mark in the world of pro cycling. After years of racing at the highest levels, she's now channeling that same energy into her role as a trip designer at Trek Travel, where we get to work with her. Now Lucy shapes unforgettable cycling adventures around the globe.

In this episode, we're going to dive into what it's like inside a women's pro cycling team. We're going to explore her most memorable moments from the saddle and discuss how she's reimagined her cycling journey beyond the podium. Thanks so much for joining us today, Lucy.

Thank you, thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here too and talk about things women cycling.

Yeah, just arrived in the UK back home with your beautiful, can't even call her a baby girl because she's like doing her thing, her personality.

She's like walking, talking, saying Spanish and English now. It's wild. She speaks two languages. She speaks more languages than me. And she's not even two.

Speaker 2 (09:38.254)
You we're supposed to raise them to be more awesome than we are.

Exactly, breast version is the best.

Yes, I love that. So Lucy, the Tour de France is happening in July, which means this is a perfect moment to chat about pro cycling. And we feel so, so lucky to have the chance to pick your brain. Let's start off with just thinking back to your time as a pro rider. What were some of the biggest shifts you had to make when you transitioned from some of those local races up to joining a super big time team like the drops?

I think the biggest shift was just when you're trying to compete at that level it becomes your whole your life it has to be your whole life and I joined drops I just turned 18 so I was really shifting from being a student at school and finishing high school and sort of doing normal teenage things and then suddenly becomes your whole life so you really have to dedicate it's a 24-hour job.

you know, everything you do has an effect on your training and therefore your racing. So I think really that mental switch to like, okay, like I'm going all in on this was probably the biggest shift that I had to make.

Speaker 2 (11:00.578)
When you made that shift, were you still at uni or in college, as we say in the States?

Yeah, so I didn't go to college, which is a lot more normal in the UK and Europe than it is in the US. And I know when I was guiding at TripTravel, a lot of the guests would be like, my God, you didn't go to college. But yeah, I'd plan to take a year out because you just can't, you cannot study to a good level and train. So it's a full time job. You know, you're training.

up to four or five hours a day and double days and you cannot put your efforts into a college degree and training. So I finished the equivalent of high school and then went put it all into the cycling. So yeah, I didn't have to balance the college and training lifestyle, but it wouldn't have been an option anyway. Plus we don't have sports scholarships over here. It's like not, it's not like the same thing. So it's a very different kind of college.

university set up over here.

When you first said that you didn't go to college, my face registered surprise because all at once I realized that you were making that transition from school to pro cycling. When you were in high school is what we call it in the States. So you were what like 17 or 18 and that's the age that you were transitioning into this crazy life of pro cycling. That's phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (12:28.416)
and pain.

Yeah, yeah, I was a just turned 18, just finished high school. So I'm a summer baby. So I'm July. So I just finished. And then in the October, I moved to Spain for my training. And I had a couple of teammates over there and put it all into it, which now looking back, I'm like, that was a huge move at the time. I was so determined and it's like, was nothing stopping me. There was nothing was getting in my way. But yeah, now I look back and I was, oh my God, I was so young.

So, yeah.

That's phenomenal. I don't think that I really even knew how to do laundry when I was 18, let alone- didn't. You knew how to train as a professional athlete. That's so incredible for an 18-year-old.

Yeah, no, it was a big move, but I definitely learned a lot and I had to grow up a lot. And I had a lot of older teammates. I had some teammates that were my age and we were kind of growing up together. And that was amazing. And we have such amazing friendships and still do. But I had a couple of teammates that were sort of 10, 12 years older than me. And they just took such a mentor role on all of us. And it was a really special dynamic in the Drops team, it was something really special that I am.

Speaker 1 (13:43.682)
really grateful for and really built lifelong friendships. there was definitely, we definitely looked up to the older girls on the team as like a real almost mother role. When you're away for weeks, weeks or months on the road, you sort of go through so many highs and lows in life. And we were so young, but was lucky to have such close friends my own age, but also some teammates that took on that mental role.

That's fascinating to think about the team dynamic in that way. Out of curiosity, you were 18 when you first started out. What age were some of these quote unquote older writers who were sort of doing these mother roles?

There was a couple in their mid-30s, which is old in professional sport, which is crazy to say. But yeah, so we ranged from 18. I think the oldest would have been 36, 37. So yeah, that was our age span.

That's huge. Okay, so Lucy, I think you've raced a bunch of different types of races like crits, road races, multi-day stage races, what we would think about for a Tour de France, for example. First off, can you give our listeners who maybe don't have a lot of experience with pro cycling, just a really quick description of those types of races and which was your favorite?

Yeah, so the crits are shorter. They're typically on a circuit that you'll do laps of and they're around an hour long. I think the circuits are usually between one and two miles. So it's pretty, it's pretty short. They're a lot faster. It's a really dynamic, aggressive racing. Like from the gun, you're off and you're racing straight away for an hour full gas. And they're really popular in the States. They're huge. And then there's the one day races, which are

Speaker 1 (15:36.538)
like your big classics like the Tour of Flanders is a really big one, get well with them, they're really big in Belgium and it's a one day race and these will be between 120 and 160 kilometers, so up to 100 miles they can be for the women, they were capped to 100 miles, 160 kilometers is the regulation. So it's a one day and there's flat ones, there's hilly ones, there's different horses for courses. So it's all in for that one, one winner.

the line and then a stage race can be anything from two days to like the Tour de France is 21 stages and you race every single day. Some days you may have two stages in one day. So there's individual winners each day on every stage so there's a prize up for grabs every day but the overall winner is the GC, the general classification.

They have the, they do all the stages in the shortest amount of time. So it's all on time. So you complete the Tour de France in, gosh, I don't know how many hours, but let's say 50, it's definitely not 15 hours, but 15 hours and second place might do it in 15 hours and two minutes. And the person with the least amount of time wins, but there's still prizes up for grabs every day. And also in stage races, they also have other competitions within it. like a points jersey. So the person that's got the most points. So they'll have maybe some intermediate sprints throughout the stage.

where there's some points up for grabs, which is more typically towards the sprinters so they can still get something out of it. Because in a stage race, every day will be different. There'll be hilly days, there'll be flat days, there'll be time trials where it's just you're on your own and you've got distance to do and whoever does it in the fastest time wins. And there's always a young rider's classification and a mountain's classification. So there's something for everyone in a stage race and everybody goes in with a different goal. So not everybody doing a stage race.

is aiming for the general classification because that's not everybody's physiological capabilities. And my favorite was the crits. I love the crits.

Speaker 2 (17:40.31)
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So Lucy, I am so interested. What is the average week like for a pro cyclist during the racing season?

A average week for a pro cyclist in middle of the season is typically quite dull. think that pro cycling and pro sport can be really glamorized. Typically you're looking after yourself and being a pro athlete is a 24 hours a day, seven days a week job. So typically if you've got a week off racing, you'd be at home and you would spend probably five of those days with some quite intense training. So long rides with some intervals, maybe in the season that

Rides might be slightly shorter and slightly more intense, probably followed up by a couple of gym sessions, one to two gym sessions, depending on your physiology and what your goals are. Lots of active recovery. So like a lot of yoga, I used to love doing a lot of yoga. I think it's so good for building these muscles that you don't even really realize that you have. And that's so important for injury prevention and everything like that. And then on your rest days,

Speaker 1 (19:36.578)
These are your days where one, have to really make them, these are your opportunity to get any kind of life admin done. But also you don't want to do too much because if you spend this whole, say you've got a day off on a Monday, if you spend your whole Monday catching up with friends, doing all your errands that you need to do your groceries, all of that stuff, then actually you start the next day just.

exhausted, more exhausted than you are from your training. So life as a pro cyclist day to day is really quite a dull life. can be quite a dull life. Obviously riding your bike in these like beautiful, amazing places isn't dull, but yeah, it's quite like a mundane lifestyle in mid season. Comes off season, October, November is when you get to sort of have your four weeks holiday, yeah, throughout the rest of the year, your feet up, ride bike, eat lots of food, up. Yeah, that's a lot of Netflix.

The main

I like the feet up part. sounds nice.

Speaker 1 (20:26.86)
We still have afternoon siestas, so now-

I have quick question on that. Speaking of Netflix, are British people as obsessed with the Great British Baking Show as American people?

Gosh, yes. So in the UK, it's Great British Bake Off, so it has a different name. It's the same show with Mary Berry, but we call it the Great British Bake Off. And yeah, we are like obsessed. I think it's definitely ridden its peak. I remember like 10 years ago, was like, nobody did anything else at like 8pm on a Wednesday. It was like, look at the nation. But since Mary Berry's retired, I think it's fallen a little bit. But yeah, we are obsessed. was definitely something that everybody tunes into still.

That makes me feel really good. I watch one episode pretty much every single day. So that's fantastic. I feel validated.

But they're almost too good now. like they're not relatable anymore.

Speaker 2 (21:18.754)
Yeah, people are making amazing things. I would like to see more people messing.

up.

Was there anything about pro training that was surprisingly unglamorous and or surprisingly fun for you?

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:34.282)
think the unglamorous, like I mentioned before, it's just really how on the day to day is that you're just getting your job done and also rain or shine. You're out there on the road. so now I'm definitely a weather cyclist, but when I was training, you know, if, if it's raining every day for a week, then you can't skip a week of training. You've got to go out. so that's definitely something that's, that's unglamorous. And the fun is that you're

Getting to ride your bike in some amazing places and cycling as a sport is slightly different as an elite sport is that you don't typically train, unless you're on a training camp, train with your teammates. So people are out training with riders from other teams and with your friends, with your family, if they ride, know, people can keep up with you, then you can ride with them. So getting to ride your bike in all these amazing places all over the world and all over some amazing places in Europe.

is just, yeah, like a real luxury.

dream.

When you speak of training, do you have a team coach who was telling you exactly how much to ride? Did they give you a really prescribed program or were you sort of going off of something more general or just your own knowledge?

Speaker 1 (22:47.074)
Yeah, I had a coach. So some teams have one coach, which coaches the whole team. Every team operates slightly differently. On drops, we all had our individual coaches. It's a really personal thing. And it's not one coach fits all. And people have coaches that they've worked with for forever, or people like to mix things up. People think that a fresh change every couple of years is really healthy.

So yeah, I worked with a coach. wasn't a team coach, but it was a coach who sent me all of my training. They would analyze all of my Garmin files. So every ride you'd record your training and your heart rate and your power, and they would assess that and then weekly sort of update the next week's depending on how the training's going and plan your goals with them. So they would have a whole sort of yearly plan for you.

want one of those.

I don't know. That sounds horrible.

Somebody else to look at my stats and be like, you're just doing too much or you really could have done more on that. I would love somebody else to push me.

Speaker 1 (23:44.694)
Yeah, I think that's one of the important things is really went to being told when you're doing too much. Cause I think it's so if you're a typically driven person, you just want to do more, more, more. And especially in sport, you're so competitive and you want to be the best more, more, more. And sometimes you need somebody to tell you like, no, you need to take a day off today or, and also give you a kick out the backside when you're not maybe not giving it your best too. So it's really good to have that sort of unbiased. think it's, think to be able to coach yourself, which I know some riders do is really, really impressive.

Okay, so we know cycling looks pretty individual on the surface just based on the races that we watch and the fact that you train sort of on your own, but on race day, it's actually quite team oriented. Will you describe some of the strategy that goes into race day for a pro cyclist?

Yeah, it's fascinating that cycling is really truly a team sport because in the races, there's one person across the line first. There's one person with their hands in the air. There's one person that makes the headlines, but this person cannot do it without the team behind them. And the whole team will have a plan going into that day, which will be given to them by their director sportive, who's like their manager, like the equivalent of like a football or soccer manager. They'll have the plan and they will.

sit on the team bus the morning of the race or the night before, give them the plan. Every person on the team will have a role for that day. And depending on the day and the type of stage and who their chosen rider is that day, the plan will differ. So it really is everyone in for one to get them across the line first or whatever their goal is within that race.

So you might have, so I'm trying to think like as a manager of the team, are you basically deciding based on, I don't know, who's been riding the best, that person we're gonna decide is gonna be the one who we want across the finish line first. Is that kind of how they make those decisions?

Speaker 1 (25:41.058)
Yeah, typically, or every day is different or every race is different. So it depends on what the course is like. So you'll have a team which is full of people that are climbers. So can climb mountains amazingly, sprinters who can sprint on flatter stages, or they call them rulers, which are people that can kind of do a bit of everything. And then on a given day, depending on what kind of race it is, that's how they make that decision. And typically a team will have

when they're the riders for the team each year, they will try and select riders to build up a team to support one person. So they wouldn't necessarily have like five really amazing sprinters on one team because that just wouldn't work. So they would have five really fast people on their team, but always really with that one in mind. So they really build the teams around these select riders.

This makes me think of, I have two thoughts about this. This makes me think of in the U S on a football team, you would never have five, six, seven excellent quarterbacks. You'd have a couple and then you would build up great receivers that, you know, he could throw the ball to and then some people to protect him in the line, et cetera. Also, will you, will you dive more into, okay, so Lucy is the chosen.

person by the director sportive today who's going to cross the finish line arms in the air. So what are the directions to the other teammates? Like how are they helping you so that you get to that moment?

So I was more of a sprinter than a climber. Definitely enjoy going up mountains at my own steady pace. So I would have been the chosen rider when it was a fast finish going into a sprint. So the team around me would be chosen to deliver me in a lead out train. So this is when you see the riders in a team riding in one long line with their protected rider at the back and

Speaker 1 (27:33.922)
these riders will be making sure they're keeping good position at the front, keeping them safe. You might see them sort of surrounding them a little bit to make sure that other teams aren't knocking them off this train. So they call it a lead out train. And they would be gradually picking up the pace so that they essentially deliver me into maybe 100 meters to go or the final corner before the sprint opens up in the best possible position. And these lead out trains can start like,

30, 40 kilometers, so like 20, 30 miles out from before the finish line. So they're starting early and it's all about making sure that me or the protected sprinter is reaching that last 100, 200 meters in the best possible position and having used the least amount of energy to get there so that they're super fresh and have got enough energy to do their best sprint and hopefully get their hands across the line.

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Speaker 2 (29:31.032)
I have a super basic question about race day. So like you have a certain number of water bottles on your bike. Do you go through them? How do you get more? Are you carrying bars and goos and things, know, for like some of those longer stages? How are you fitting yourself?

Yeah, so the long stages, especially the ones in the summer in the heat, you start, you can only carry two water bottles on your bike, but you could be racing like more than four hours. So you need water. So typically your protected rider is not going to be going and doing anything about this, but it's their team around them that are going to be going back to the car, stocking up water bottles. So they'd be literally filling their jerseys up with water bottles as they look like Michelin Man of water bottles. So they'll be stuffing them in all sort of corners of their jersey.

And then they'll then race through the cars to get back up to the peloton. So following a peloton is all the team cars behind. So then they'll be switching in between all the cars to then find their teammates and then hand out the water bottles. Riders will carry a couple of gels, but they'll be doing the same because you don't want to be carrying like a load of food in your back pockets. It's heavy. It's not aerodynamic. It's just not the ideal situation. these domestiques, they call them. So a domestique is a name for a rider that is

really there to look after their teammates. So these domestics would be going back, fetching water, coming back up. It's an exhausting job and the race leaders could not win without them.

crazy. keep thinking about going back to what you said about surrounding a person. Can you talk a little bit about drafting off people and how that happens in cycling? I hear this term a lot and I sort of understand that you're utilizing the wind or whatever, but can you explain it to me like I'm Listeners who don't understand what drafting is.

Speaker 1 (31:20.652)
Yeah, so drafting is effectively taking the wind off a rider. So you want, if you've got a train of people in front of you, they are protecting you from the wind, but the wind can come from all angles. So if you've effectively got like kind of like a roof over you, then you are completely protected from the wind and you have to have to use so much less energy to keep going at the same speed. So you can be traveling at 20 miles an hour as the person in front of you, but it's a lot easier for you.

So obviously size comes into this. you're like a really big, tall rider, then you've got a really small lead up person. That's not going to work. So size definitely comes into it. Nobody gets any shelter off me because I'm five foot three. So you don't want to draft from me, you want to draft from someone tall. So yeah, it's all about protecting them from the wind. And also the riders will be.

You're like, so sorry.

Speaker 1 (32:15.39)
so trained in knowing how to position themselves depending on the direction of the wind. So if you're going along in this something called a crosswind, like when the wind's coming at the side, they will then instead of going in a straight line, they'll sort of come into like a diagonal line. and sitting slightly on the, on the hip of the other riders. So just, they'll be so well trained. They've done this so well and they'll practice it. So, you know, which direction the wind is going and exactly what position to go in.

That's from the wind.

crazy to me because not only is the wind coming from different directions at different times, you're also moving. you're changing directions yourself. So you have to constantly be adjusting. That to me is something I cannot fathom understanding. But I guess when you do it a lot, it makes sense that you would learn it.

Yeah, and also, so the director's motif, which is in the car behind uses a radio. So all the riders will be racing with radio. So each team has their own radio and the director will say, okay, the winds, you're going to be turning in one mile and you're going to have a crosswind. So get into this formation. So they will know what's coming and they'll be giving that direction. A lot of it is instinct. And when you're riding and now even

When I ride, if I'm just out on a social ride, can feel the winds coming from the side. You'll see me slowly draft onto somebody's hip just to make it easier for me. I think you just naturally know how to make life easier for yourself. They'll have their race director in their area telling them what to do.

Speaker 3 (33:44.992)
awesome.

Speaker 3 (33:48.428)
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Okay, so Lucy, your win at the Rafa London Nocturne was a big deal. You were the protected rider. You were the rider across the finish line, both hands in the air. When you think back on that night, what do you remember most? What stands out for you?

It was a really special evening. was, it's a really cool crates in the center of London. We, the finish line just passes St. Paul's Cathedral, which is like really beautiful church, more cathedral. And yeah, it was, it was really special. It's in the evening. There's a lot of bars around London and it almost felt like quite a relief because there's quite a lot of pressure when you're the protected rider that your team is going to do this amazing job for you and you've got to finish it off.

Obviously, I was elated to win, but I also felt relieved to be able to sort of say thanks to my teammates because they sacrificed their own result so that you can get your hands in the air.

Speaker 3 (35:24.55)
So do you feel like as a teammate, if you're other teammates, I'm thinking about your situation like that, like people are sacrificing. Are they bummed that they don't get to win? they like has it ever happened where you've been the chosen rider, but someone says, I'm going to win today and they beat you? Or is it kind of at the end of sprint to the end and whoever wins wins? Like, how does that work? I know that was like three questions, but I'm like wrapping my mind around being that person who doesn't get to win.

and how they're handling it.

Yeah, I think it can be difficult, dynamic, and I definitely think it's like a job of the director to manage that. But at the end of the day, it's your job as a professional athlete, so you're given a job. And I think this is changing so much more in women's sport now that females are being paid properly. I mean, compared to the men, still in cycling, they're being paid nowhere near as much, but female cyclists are being paid really decent wages.

It's your job at the end of the day and this is what you're paid to do. And most riders know when they're signed onto a team that they're signed on with the role of you are going to be helping this person. But everybody usually has their opportunity. Everybody has a day throughout the year, which is their day. But yeah, I think you might have two super fast climbers and they both want to go for the win. So yeah, it's definitely something that's tricky to manage.

Lucy, I want to go back to doing a crit in London. I've been in London one time. The roads are not incredibly wide and smooth and free of pedestrians and obstacles. At night, probably some people who've had several glasses of wine. Is that the correct assumption in my brain that you're racing breakneck speed and also sort of dodging some obstacles as well?

Speaker 1 (37:17.39)
Yeah, I mean, you're not having to dodge drunk people that have had too much wine at one. The roads are fenced, but there is road furniture which doesn't move. So yeah, you're having to potentially dodge road furniture in the middle of the road. Typically like in Belgium where there's a lot of crits, they have like tram lines in the middle of the road, which can be like really hectic and if it's wet, absolutely awful and a lot of crashes.

Thank goodness.

Speaker 1 (37:46.456)
But yeah, so it is, and you're going around tight corners. So there's a lot of crashes and you really have to be like mentally switched on from start to finish.

Wow, that's intense.

I'd really like to know what road furniture is.

Do you guys not say road furniture?

I road signs and things like that.

Speaker 1 (38:06.062)
You know, like, you know, like if you have like crossings in the road, or I don't know, like the things that maybe you guys don't have it, but in the UK we have a lot of road vans.

I love it.

Anything that's in the road.

Yeah, no, I understood, it's just that's a cute name for it. I love it. Okay, so Lucy, will you describe your role? obviously you work with us at Trek Travel. You initially took a role as a Trek Travel guide and now you work in trip design as a trip design coordinator. Are there parts of your pro cycling experience that you bring to your work at Trek Travel?

Yeah, I think when you're an athlete, you are always looking for the small improvements and those one percenters that make something great. So I think I really take that mindset into my role now as a trip designer, always looking for the small things, small changes, easy changes that can make a huge difference. I think also just having like that athlete mindset is like a very like driven and

Speaker 1 (39:12.61)
competitive, although I have a much healthier, more competition with myself rather than my teammates at Trek Travel, but like that really like driven mindset. So yeah, I think that I bring that.

So today we've asked you a lot of questions that were probably expected and things that often, I bet friends and family and people that you meet ask about your time as a pro cyclist. But what's something that you wish people would ask you about?

I wish that people would ask me more about the nutrition and how to fuel yourself properly in sport. It's something that I did not feel like I had any real understanding of or education in when I was younger and growing up in sport. I think that it's changed so much. think sport and women's sport has changed like massively, like even in the last few years.

from when I was racing and growing up, it's just like a completely different world. There's so much more research and the mentality is shifting, but I just think that continuing to like share that education and share that like fuel is power and that food is your fuel and that eating is a good thing and all the good things that you need to keep your body moving is so important. And yeah, like when I was racing, was...

seen as a positive to be super, super lean and like to not have a period was like seen as like a positive thing meant that you have really fit, really healthy. And now actually that's like a huge red flag and people are more aware of that. And yeah, it's definitely something that, you know, if I was to have a conversation with my younger self or if I was to see some like younger 18, 19 year old girls, like not eating properly on their rides or not fueling properly when they get in from training, it's something that I would love to be like.

Speaker 1 (41:00.526)
This is not the best way to go about it and for like your longevity and your long-term health is so important.

the way you answered that question in your comments about yoga and taking care of yourself and those muscles you didn't know you had, it's really nice and refreshing. And I'll say, as we research other female athletes, in this day and age, we hear some of those similar themes, but it is really nice to hear about women talking out loud about taking care of themselves. It's not...

just about performance if you're an athlete. It's not just about the aesthetic and the way that you look, whether you're a pro athlete or not, but it's also about just actually taking care of your body. We talk a lot about longevity. We love to talk about athletes who have been in their profession for a really long time or taking really good care of their bodies. So it's awesome to also hear that comment from you as well. It's really cool.

Yeah, it's so important. And I think like for me, like when I look at like who my heroes in sport are, I say like Lizzie Diagon, who's one of the leader trek riders. I mean, she's had two children and is still racing at the highest level. And it's just like shows that her body is so healthy and she takes such good care of it that she's able to like have two healthy pregnancies, be a mom and still compete at the highest level. You just think, wow, she must really look after herself. And it shows in just like the length.

and success of her career. So I think she is somebody that all young writers should be looking up to.

Speaker 3 (42:32.11)
That's amazing. Thanks for sharing that. All right. We are coming to the end of our time with you, Lucy, and I want to do a really quick lightning round questions with you. So I'm going ask you four questions. You just answer as fast as you can with the first inch of the pops into your head. Okay. And speaking of food, what is your favorite post-ride meal?

A breakfast burrito.

your most underrated cycling destination.

Underrated. That is really tricky. Cornwall in the UK. It's like that tiny little boot on the end of the UK.

very cool. Okay. One rider you looked up to when you were growing up.

Speaker 1 (43:12.942)
Laura Trott or Laura Kenny now.

Use one word to describe the feeling of crossing the finish line first.

Exciting.

That was so great. I am so glad that we get to have you on today because this has been lovely and it's always so great to hear your lovely accent and I'm gonna I am going to never forget road furniture for the rest of my life.

That and life admin.

Speaker 3 (43:44.072)
Life admin, yeah. I'm gonna tell Ambre, I've gotta go do some life admin today.

I'm fat.

That's been a short.

Yeah, that's great.

Well, Lucy, thank you so much for your hanging out with us, for taking time out of your busy day. We so appreciate you and we know that our listeners are going to love hearing your

Speaker 1 (44:04.544)
story. Thanks for having me.

All right, it is time for our final segment of the day. She's got game where we dive into a spotlight of a woman doing something awesome in sports. I have to tell you, I was fully planning on trying to go a little more creative today, like finding a coach or a team supporter or something, but I found this female pro cyclist and I couldn't resist her because she's so cute.

and so fierce in equal measures. Her name is Gaia Reallini and totally a rising star in the world of women's cycling. You know, I had to go with somebody who rides for Team Leto Trek. Our team, the team I'll be cheering for. She's just 24 years old and already shaking up the sport.

because she's tiny, because she's crazy good and is always smiling. So Gaia is from Italy. I mentioned she's 24 years old. She grew up in a super modest home, a modest family, modest beginnings. Her mom was a stay at home parent and her dad worked at a gas station. And she began cycling, riding a bike when she was seven, because her dad suggested it.

and she talks about that first ride on her bike. Can I quickly pause and just say that when I learned how to ride a bike, it was savagery. It was absolutely crying and screaming. My dad was trying to teach me and it was not going well. I don't have the same memory of my first bike ride that Gaia did. Apparently, her first ride on a bike was magical. She said it was love at first sight. Even today,

Speaker 2 (46:03.202)
whatever, many years later, she's 24 years old even today, it's the same feeling as the first time she rode a bike. So she just loves her sport and her profession. I mentioned a couple of times that she's small. Can you guess how tall she is?

my goodness, if she's small, she's five foot.

Four foot 11. Under five. Yeah. Under five and famous for being really explosive and determined, proving that size actually doesn't mean anything. Her personality, she's super playful. She's always making jokes. She's really self-deprecating. She's always making jokes at her own expense. She's full of energy.

her teammates talk about her as fun loving and fiercely focused. She makes me think of that quote, like, is it better to be loved than feared or I don't know, however that goes. She's like both basically. People adore her.

I want people to fear how much they love me.

Speaker 2 (47:12.14)
I think Gaia has achieved that. think her competitors are terrified and her teammates adore her. She's been riding for Leadle Trek since 2023, so a couple of years, and has recently signed an extended contract. So she's going to stay with them until 2027, which just goes to show what a great job she's doing and how much the team managers love her and adore her. Okay, let's hit the resume. You know, I love to roll out some stats here.

But something we didn't cover with Lucy are the really huge and famous cycling races that you hear of. They're all in Europe because that's where, well, I don't know, cycling has just been around a lot longer. But these big three, they're called the cycling grand tours include the Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a España. So Giro d'Italia, Italy, Vuelta a España, Spain.

Then, of course, the Tour de France, the most prestigious and famous cycling race in all of history. The Tour de France is a mix of some mountain routes and some more flat routes, but the Giro and the Vuelta are pretty mountainous. That matters because Gaia is a crazy talented climber. You have riders who are really good at sprinting, so going very fast for-

maybe a shorter amount of time and probably mostly on flats. You people who are really good for climbing. You have all sorts of different riders with different strengths. So here's some of the stats that Gaia has ranked up in just a few short years. In 2023, she was third at the Giro. Obviously all of these are the women's versions of, yeah, there's a women's tour and a men's tour. 2023, third at the Giro.

She had some stage wins. So a stage is one day for the most part. So she had some stage wins at the Vuelta in 2024. So this be last year. She was third at a similar race in Switzerland. And then she was fourth at a similar race in United Arab Emirates, which is also, man, UAE is just coming for every sport in the world. I'm just trying to think about- the money. Get all the money. I'm just thinking about like soccer, they're doing it, golf, they're doing it.

Speaker 2 (49:31.946)
Cycling, they're doing it too. And Gaia went over and she competed. got fourth at that tournament. Also last year she was fifth at the Tour de France. So the females version of the Tour de France and seventh at the Giro. By the way, for her competing and getting onto the podium, close to the podium at the Giro is a big freaking deal. It is the most prestigious race in Italy.

And for an Italian, which Gaia is, it's like a big deal, like home turf, doing really well in my home country. So really cool. She doesn't have any first place finishes yet. Not yet. Part of that, I'm just drawing some conclusions here based on my rookie understanding, but part of that might be because she's a climber. So a lot of times,

Yeah

Speaker 2 (50:28.574)
know, a team is working together to help one of their teammates cross the finish line first. And that probably is going to be a sprinter. Not always, anyway, she doesn't have any of those top podium finishes yet, but it is so early in her career. So she's definitely a cornerstone or really important piece of Team Lidltrek's strategy, especially when it comes to mountainous parts of races. And the team is really looking at her to

take on a leadership role. Okay, so I just wanna talk briefly about what other people say about Gaia and her strengths and her personality and the sort of teammate that she is. So her coach, Matteo Azzolini, is definitely helping her refine her tactics in order to match her physical gifts, which is high power, low.

size basically. So her ratio is super ideal again for climbing and for other tactics as well. Her coach says Gaia's engine, I love that, Gaia's engine, incredible. And now we're working with her on when and how to use it best. So I of mentioned she's a rising leader on the Lethal Trek team gaining more responsibility and sort of becoming one of those more senior riders over the years.

Her teammates really trust her judgment. She's starting to kind of help mentor. Okay, here's a couple of funny things. Some things that commentators say about Gaia. Isn't this interesting? They talk about how she can struggle with descents sometimes. So going down a hill, especially if it's really technical, like hairpin turns really tight or low visibility.

She's so small, so when she's in a group, it's hard for her to see what's coming. She can't see people. She's just flowing with where people are going and not really being able to anticipate or really be very strategic in those moments. She's known to be smiling or even grinning as she climbs because she loves it so much. She's crazy.

Speaker 3 (52:44.024)
Crazy I guess.

These are not incredibly complimentary things that commentators say about her, but people compare her to, or they say that she climbs like a mountain goat or they call her a pocket rocket.

She's like...

guess they're probably assuming it's kind of like a compliment.

I think so, but in all of the different ways that somebody could maybe describe me, I'm not sure if those would be the first, but you don't always get a choice because she's light, fast and fearless. The fans just adore her because she is mini size, also because she's always smiling and really happy and cheerful, and also because she comes from those humble beginnings. It's a neat story.

Speaker 3 (53:06.595)
Right?

Speaker 2 (53:34.254)
fan favorite, people love the underdog. Which is honestly becoming less and less her as she's racking up some of these wins. But yeah, big smiles, big heart. That is basically Gaia. She totally is one of those figureheads representing the future of women's cycling. International, fierce and joyfully herself. She's so authentic when she does interviews.

loves a sport, has those killer instincts. She's just totally inspiring a whole new generation of female cyclists. Little girls who are watching her just knock down those climbs and watching her work really hard, but maybe most importantly watching her have a really amazing time doing it and watching her just really love the sport that she's in. So for all those reasons,

and many, many more are why we've chosen Gaia Raelini from Team Lethal Trek as our She's Got Game lady today.

Speaker 2 (54:48.098)
That's wrap on today's chat with Lucy Shaw. What a ride. From crits and team tactics to that electric win at the Rafa London Nocturne, Lucy pulled back the curtain on life in the Pro Peloton. Whether she's crushing cobbles or crafting dream trips at Trek Travel, Lucy proves that the cycling life doesn't end at the finish line. It just gets a new map. Huge thanks to Lucy for joining us and to you.

for If you liked this episode, please support our show by sharing it with a friend or maybe tagging us in your Instagram stories. We love seeing where you're tuning in from. With that, we will see you next week.