From the Caribbean to Clermont-Ferrand - Teniel Campbell's long road to Paris

"Whatever I do, it will help people to dream." Teniel Campbell says over the phone while at the gym putting the final touches on her form just days before leaving her home in Girona, Spain, to travel over the border to Clermont-Ferrand, France, where she will be among the world's best cyclists starting the second edition of the restored women's Tour de France - Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift - on July 23.

Campbell is determined to achieve three things on the world-class cycling circuit this season, and lining up with her Jayco AlUla team on the start line at the biggest stage race in the world is only the beginning. 

She also has her priorities set on finishing in the top ten places at the Glasgow World Championships in August and is on a hunt for points to qualify her nation, Trinidad & Tobago, and herself for next summer's Paris Olympic Games. 

In an interview with Cyclingnews, Campbell stresses that more than performances, results and points, she wants to show the world that anyone can accomplish their dreams with a strong support network, a healthy perspective, and hard work.

Campbell grew up in Hardbargain, on the south side of Trinidad, and has already achieved so much in her career as a professional cyclist, from her beginnings in road and track cycling at the World Cycling Centre in Switzerland in 2018 to leaping up to the Women's WorldTour with then-called Mitchelton-Scott in 2021, now Jayco AlUla through 2024. 

She has competed in the sport's biggest arenas, over the famed cobblestones of Paris-Roubaix and across the high mountains of the Giro d'Italia Donne but with a focus always on Spring Classics, and to fly the Trinidad & Tobago flag at the World Championships and Olympic Games.

She has blazed a trail for many generations to come as the first female cyclist from Trinidad & Tobago to compete in the road race at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, is one of few Black women currently competing at the highest echelons of pro bike racing, and the first to compete in the Tour de France Femmes.

"I know that many Caribbean athletes, and literally, I was in the system struggling since the beginning as a junior. I didn't have any shortcuts in life. I had to work hard. It gives people hope, not just for them but it also gives South Americans hope. I race in the Pan-Ams, and I was once that rider that used to get my ass washed, and then I started winning," Campbell says of her history of competing in other major games, Pan American Championships and Caribbean Championships, in track and road cycling. 

"It's step-by-step. For all the smaller nations, [my career] creates a lot of hope for all these countries. It's fair to say that even for individuals who are struggling in life, it's not an easy road, and anything you do in life is a challenge; you have to be true to your goals and true to yourself. Hopefully, everyone who wants to achieve something keep on believing.

"When I first started out, no one believed in me. It was me and these crazy thoughts and my imagination; regardless, I would not give up. Keep moving until doors start opening; doors shut too. My recent injury was a blessing in disguise and sparked something in me. So, I not only motivate these groups of people, but many people in life."

A remarkable recovery

Campbell's journey to the Tour de France Femmes is all the more remarkable this year after only recently returning from a career-threatening injury sustained last October in a crash while sprinting to the finish line at the elite women's Caribbean Road Championships in Santo Domingo. 

"The only reason I went down there was to qualify for the CAC and Pan American Championships," Campbell recalled.

"It was a flat circuit; we came down to the sprint, I was on the outside, and I don't remember what happened. I watched the video. It is what it is, and it was unfortunate, but crashes happen in cycling. One rider went under my bike, and while I was about to launch my sprint, she hooked the back of my bike, and I went down. It caught me by surprise. I hit my knee directly on the ground; that busted my knee, maybe I rolled, and something clipped the [patella] tendon. Partial rupture to my patella tendon, and I was lucky it wasn't the entire thing. I also had a fracture, not the patella; it was to one of the smaller bones. It was a big injury, but it could have been much worse.

"It was a shit situation. I was a bit angry. The injury was disgusting. I wasn't in pain, didn't feel anything; in that moment, I just stayed on the ground. I didn't cross the line; my chip must have picked up the [16th-place] result when the mechanic crossed the line with the bike. I was in the ambulance."

A fracture in her knee and a partially severed patella tendon threatened to keep her off her bike for at least eight months, putting a question mark on whether she could recover in time for one of the most critical seasons of her career.

Campbell says that learning about her injury and what her body required for a full recovery, along with her medical treatment in Girona, helped reduce the recovery time to five months.

"The first time I cried was when I went back to Trinidad and saw the surgeon, and he said I was out for eight months. I just thought this wasn't going to work. The team pushed for me to recover at home because they thought the best thing for me would be to stay with my family. Family is important, it certainly is, but I needed to get the hell back up and on my bike and back in the competition. I have shit to do," Campbell says of her emergency travel back to Girona for medical treatment following the crash.

"I messaged my doctor in Girona, and he helped plan a recovery. I booked my ticket and flew back. I had my mom stay with me. I needed someone to fly with me; it was risky to fly alone. My mom took time off work without pay and stayed with me for three or four weeks until I could walk again."

Campbell reunited with her Jayco AlUla team and returned to racing at Scheldeprijs in March. She has since competed in a handful of one-day races, along with La Vuelta Femenina and Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour. She had to take some time off again due to swelling in her knee but says she has been given the green light to compete at the Tour de France Femmes.

"I haven't been racing for the past five weeks because I had a bit of a flare-up in Germany, stiffness and just did the 1.1 race in Belgium, and I had good sensations there but not a lot of luck. I pulled out of Swiss to fully commit to the rehab and to check in every week," Campbell said.

"Now we go to the Tour. Everything went well. The swelling went down, and everything looked promising. It seems like I will be back in good condition for the Tour."

Campbell's debut at the Tour

Campbell arrives in Clermont-Ferrand this week and will appear at an official press event to speak with the media on Saturday, the eve of the Tour de France Femmes kick-off. In her Tour debut, she will join a powerful Jayco AlUla team that includes Alex Manly, Amber Pate, Ane Santesteban, Georgie Howe, Jessica Allen and Nina Kessler.

"This is all really exciting to me. We were happy with the progress after my injury, and once I was ready to race, we took it step by step and tried to tick the boxes and see how I adjusted," Campbell says.

"I knew leading up to this task would be a big challenge. I'm a person that loves challenges, so I took everything in stride as it came, and I tried to fix, adapt, and understand my injury - that was the biggest thing for me - understanding my body, learning my body. 

"That is why I was able to get back in good condition and be ready for the Tour de France. It gives me a lot of satisfaction that I can be at the start, have good sensations, good feelings and the possibility to go for a result. Hopefully, that happens."

The Tour de France Femmes route hits new heights this year with 956 kilometres and a grand finale in the Pyrenees with a mountaintop finish on the iconic Tourmalet on stage 7 and a final stage 8 time trial in Pau. Still, there will be plenty of opportunities for breakaways, puncheurs and sprinters during the opening six stages.

"I will be there to support the team, but I also have an open role to go for a result myself. I'm going to try to hold onto that and be there when the opportunity presents itself. From the feedback I heard last year, it was full gas every day, so I'll take it day by day, but with opportunity opens, I'll ride it," Campbell says, noting that her family will be watching the daily live broadcast to see her, once again, making history on the world-class stage of professional cycling.

"That is the only thing that sucks, all my family live in Trinidad & Tobago, and no one can come; the tickets are too expensive. It will be exciting for them to be able to follow on live tv. Hopefully, I'll be able to pull something out of the bag."

The road to the Olympics

As for the Olympic Games, Campbell still needs to qualify for a spot, and her brother Akil, a track endurance cyclist, also aims to compete in Paris. The road to the Games will be challenging, but Campbell says she is taking it one step at a time, explaining that there are still a few opportunities and avenues to explore which could end up seeing her and her brother on the start lines in Paris.

"I could become the World champion, and that would make my life a lot easier. Worlds, if I get a top-10 or as the first non-qualifying nation - and if it was for the road race, I would get the spot - otherwise, I need to get 800 UCI points and slide in. It's a hard task ahead," Campbell says.

"Akil is a track cyclist, and I hope, for him, that he qualifies for Paris. I hope he goes; one of us has to go. I know for me, there is more than just the Olympics, but as a track cyclist, it would be good to see him qualify."

Campbell says she attempted to qualify for the Olympics again at the Pan American Championships in Panama City in April, where she was 28th in the road race and 6th in the time trial. She says a delay in bikes, which arrived broken, meant her efforts to secure points didn't come to fruition.

"It offered an automatic spot. I was pushing and hoping for the fitness, but that went badly; jet lag, heat, broken and delayed bikes, all of these things. It didn't go as planned. It wasn't smooth sailing. I didn't qualify for the Olympics."

Despite her recent setbacks, Campbell's dream of competing in Paris is still alive, and she will continue working toward that goal with support from her family, team and nation. She says she gets her fighting spirit from her mother, Euphemia, and hopes to inspire others.

"It comes from my background. I grew up in a single-parent household and saw my mom fighting to make sure my brother and I had everything in life to make us comfortable. You sometimes feed off of that; I guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree," Campbell says.

"Everyone goes through struggles in life, and it's how you look at it, your perspective on it; again, I'm also strong in faith and God, and so is my family. I have other people praying for me, a lot of protection around me. I always end up landing in the hands of good people, people who believe in me, people who share the same dream, and people who pick me up when I'm at my worst. 

"It's also something I'm blessed to have because I know not many people have that. I feed off of the energy of the people around me. That is also why my circle is not that big; it's close and small because I feed off of good energy. And when you know that your sibling is looking up to you, the nation, people who are really looking to you. You keep going."