As cycling teams spend more on scouting, talent gets spotted earlier, contracts are penned at younger ages and the pathway to becoming professional becomes more defined. The conveyor belt funnels, refines and moulds aspiring athletes into the humanoid motors decked in lycra, hidden by sunglasses and atop carbon machines, who we see on our TVs.
However, not all routes to professional cycling follow the same template and there are still some who defy convention. One of the latest examples of this is Lauren Dickson, 25, who has come from a running and triathlon background into professional cycling. This transition might not be as uncommon as Primož Roglič’s swapping ski poles for bike handlebars, but for Dickson it’s a goal more than a decade in the making: “I always dreamed of becoming a professional sportswoman and it’s happened in the best way possible I think.”
I spoke to Dickson in April, before she had won the Lincoln Grand Prix riding for the UCI Continental squad Handsling Alba Development Road Team. It was clear in our chat how serious and dedicated she was to sign a pro contract as she embarked on her final season with the team, which she says provided “crucial” opportunities for her. Six months later, she is on the eve of her professional career, with none other than the best-ranked team in the world, FDJ-Suez.
It all worked out and Dickson now says she is: “Delighted… over the moon! I remember my agent (Hannah Barnes) asked how I would feel riding in an FDJ Suez jersey, and I thought how incredible it would be, but never truly believed I’d have the chance.
“Them being ranked first in the world this year reflects how dedicated and talented everyone within the team is, both riders and staff, and I’m excited to be part of such an ambitious and hardworking set-up.”
She may soon be in one of the most competitive squads in her sport, but that hasn’t stopped Dickson dreaming for more: “I’d love to win a Grand Tour stage, specifically I dream of a stage in La Vuelta because I’ve spent a lot of time in Spain and studied Spanish at university. A Vuelta stage would be quite symbolic on a personal level I think, a culmination of balancing academics and elite sport.”
Like her fellow Scot Oscar Onley, who also started as a runner and this year equalled the nation’s best ever Tour de France result by finishing fourth, Dickson is grounded and enjoys the consistent, methodical approach to training that goes in the background behind the results. Dickson is clear on her goals for 2026: “A big focus on the bike is to brush up on some of the technical skills that will be even more important as I step up a level. I want to build on my physiological capabilities too, obviously, but this is more important in the long run and will really be complimented by being efficient. I want to integrate smoothly into the team and long-term do the best I can for our leaders at every opportunity.”
Through triathlon, she has experience of balancing training requirements, something which is also important in cycling, although not to the same degree. A key factor for her is improving her time trialling: “I’d love to spend some time focusing on TTs and see how far I can get in this discipline as it's something I did a lot of in triathlon and think my power profile is suited to. I rode the Shiv [the Specialized TT bike used by FDJ Suez] at the Tour de l’Ardeche and my splits were surprisingly close to the winner’s on the flat, so I think investing time here somewhere in the future would be worthwhile.”
As shown by her Lincoln win, it’s not surprising that Dickson is best suited to attritional races: “You could describe my physiology as a diesel engine, so hard and testing courses suit me well. I love climbing and TTs, so one-day the long-term dream is to end-up as a GC rider.” Dickson believes this is, in part, thanks to her multi-sport background: “Coming up through athletics and triathlon has definitely helped me a lot — in more ways than I think are initially recognised.”
“Physically, it means I am quite robust: running builds your bones up and I was used to incorporating gym work into my program for performance gains and injury prevention. The training volume from triathlon is quite high too, so sometimes a big day on the bike feels more manageable because I can truly focus on that one session and not on juggling different sessions in the same day.”
These physical attributes were also coupled with mental strength in the way she had to race her triathlons: “My swim was distinctly sub-par in comparison with my bike and run, so I was always working hard to catch up and move through the field as the race went on. Ironically this has been a blessing because I rarely give up if things aren’t going my way — I never made it out of the water in the first two packs — and I can push myself hard and ride smartly on the bike.”
Although at 25, Dickson is older than some neo-pros, she doesn’t think she has missed out on learning how to approach the rigours of professional sport, outside of the training and competing. As a teen, she was on British Athletics’s talent pathway that provided advice on sports nutrition, media training, sports psychology, balancing commitments — all aspects Dickson says “really gave an insight into what it takes to make sport your career and a lot of what we learnt I still draw upon consciously today”.
A key part of being a professional athlete is using the resources and help around you. She is in a relationship with Sean Flynn, another Scot and one of Onley’s teammates at Team Picnic PostNL.
“A lot of what I know on the bike I’d credit to my partner, Sean Flynn, who I first started riding with at 17 years old — for our first date he took me on a ride, where I remember gladly stopping at a traffic light and being able to finally take a drink as I didn’t know how to while riding at speed.”
“In terms of race craft and race calendar, the credit definitely lies with Scottish Cycling and Alba. My coach, Evan Oliphant, really understood me as a rider and brought my ability on hugely — going above and beyond to teach me bunch skills and listen to what I wanted to focus on. I rode a lot over the winter on the velodrome and that brought my confidence and knowledge up a lot, having good training partners who you can ask questions and learn from helped lots.”
With Dickson still posting Parkrun times in the low 17 minutes, Demi Vollering will have to get used to having a quicker runner on her team.
