RAPID ASCENT

From complete novice to Women’s WorldTour rider in under three years, Owen Rogers asks Leah Dixon about her meteoric rise through cycling’s ranks

- Owen Rogers

The northern Netherlands in early spring is an unforgiving place for a cyclist. A freezing wind rages endlessly across the flatlands, bending the branches of leafless trees.

Lining up for her first UCI race in the small Dutch village of Dwingeloo in March 2018, Welshwoman Leah Dixon had no idea what she had let herself in for.

Nearby, as she shivered on the Drentse Acht van Westerveld start line, 2016 world champion Amalie Dideriksen chatted with her Boels-Dolmans teammates, and soon-to-be Commonwealth champion Chloe Hosking passed the time of day with former team-mate, Belgian champion Jolien D’hoore.

Derby-based Dixon knew few of them. She was no seasoned pro. Only 13 months before, fifth place in the opening round of the Wooly Mamil Winter Series in Stourport had been her first-ever race.

“I had no idea how big the Drentse Acht race was or what it was,” 28-year-old Dixon tells Cycling Weekly. “I was riding for Brother OnForm and Simon [Howes, team manager] asked if I wanted to go, and I thought, ‘Why not?’

“I had never even done a national series, so 30-40 people was the biggest race I had been in. The start was a bit technical, really fast and really narrow. I thought, ‘I did not sign up for this!’ I was hanging on near the back the whole time.”

Since that agonising day she has continued her meteoric rise through the sport, recently receiving attention after winning the overall of the Skoda V-Women’s Tour virtual race with her new team, Women’s Continental squad Tibco-SVB.