Lucy Gadd
Lucy has joined us at the start of the season having raced independently for the latter part of 2023 and the first races of this year.
Another very experienced young rider, Lucy has raced extensively in Europe and has some iconic races under her belt.
Whilst cycling may not have been an obvious destination, coming from a musical family, Lucy's love of the outdoors drew her to the sport. When a new, Olympic standard velodrome was built in her hometown Bournemouth, she jumped at the chance to try out the junior sessions. As a great place to ride, Lucy quickly built bike handling skills, strength, and experience of riding in groups.
When the London Olympic cycling boom occurred and sessions at the velodrome grew from 30 to 100 participants, the opportunities to develop further also grew. When Lucy joined the local club Poole Wheelers, she had to choose between cycling and dancing, with two wheels winning out as she began racing in the local track league.
Road racing followed, and she joined British Cycling's under 16 regional school of racing at Newport Velodrome, developing her track and criterium skills. Lucy came fourth in her first U16 Road Race Series and joined the Liv Halo CC Team, developing her road racing alongside Pfeiffer Georgi. After a few bad crashes on the track, she concentrated on the road and joined Magnus Backstedt's team before it merged with Storey Racing in 2018.
Lucy rode the 2019 Tour de Yorkshire and soaked in the experience, learning from high-quality riders around her, winning the under 23 National Road Race Series, and coming 3rd in the 2022 National Championships, under 23 Time Trial.
In 2023, Lucy joined Stade Rochelais Charente-Maritime, a UCI Continental Team, and raced across Europe. Being part of a solely French-speaking team is one of Lucy's biggest cycling challenges, but she took the language barrier in her stride and worked hard for the team, earning valuable UCI points and taking part in iconic races like the Tour of Normandy and Paris-Roubaix. After recovering from illness, Lucy returned to racing, claiming a 2nd place in the National Time Trial Championship, but suffered a horror crash at the Ardeche, where she struck a race official standing in the road on a fast descent.
This crash, along with her team folding around the same time, left Lucy in a bad place, and she took her time to recover and reset, returning to the turbo and focusing on the process once again. Eventually, she returned to racing, initially independently, and thankfully, during The CiCLE Classic, things began to click into place again.
Lucy's greatest achievement in cycling to date is her 2nd place at the National Time Trial Championships in 2023. To be on the podium after a difficult period of racing in Europe was massive for her and reaffirmed her potential. As with many riders, Lucy has little time to spare, mixing work with racing and training, although she's become an expert at time management.
She remains a big fan of road racing though and looks back with fondness at her participation in Paris-Roubaix. Unsurprisingly, she's a big fan of Pfeiffer and hopes to continue their rivalry on the road.
Lucy's cycling pet hate is listening to her rivals breathing hard and struggling; she'd rather be listening to podcasts to distract her! We hope Lucy can put a challenging season behind her, bring her extensive experience to the team, and return to winning ways.