'I want it all back' - Lizzy Banks is becoming a professional cyclist again

Lizzy Banks has not been a professional cyclist for all that long. A latecomer to the sport, Banks left the sixth year of her medical degree to pursue a career in cycling, giving up long-held hopes of being a doctor to try to be a professional athlete. She made a name for herself as a rider who had taken a risk, stepped away from well-laid plans to try and make it in the peloton, and looked to be doing just that. 

But for the last two years, her place in the peloton has been empty, the 32-year-old sidelined for two seasons in a row by back-to-back medical issues threatening her trajectory toward the sport's top. 

In an in-depth interview with Cyclingnews, Banks reflects on the challenges she has faced and overcame nearly two years later.

At first, Lizzy Banks’ switch to professional racing was all going well, exceptionally well, in fact. After racing for UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling in 2018, in her first full European seasons she won stages at the Giro Donne in both 2019 and 2020, as well as coming second at the GP de Plouay, behind compatriot Lizzie Deignan.

She then survived the untimely disbanding of Équipe Paule Ka in 2020 to secure a contract with Ceratizit-WNT for the next year. At the beginning of 2021, she had just had a breakout season, she was on the right track, and then a concussion she suffered at Strade Bianche put everything on hold. As unpredictable as head injuries often are, Banks’ concussion resulted in not just a few weeks or months off the bike, but the whole rest of the season. 

“It's kind of weird because I went into the 2021 season pretty fit, maybe not the best I've ever been, but pretty fit with pretty high expectations of how things were gonna go,” Banks said.

“I knew that I had a really good shot at the [Tokyo] Olympics if things went as well for me as they had in previous springs or in the end of the previous season. And then, obviously, everything turned upside down with my concussion.”

Looking at Banks’ results and calendar from the last two years, it’s easy to assume the whole block was a write-off, but she explains how actually, between the two seasons, she thought she was on her way back to normal, fully recovered from the concussion and ready to go again.

“I had that period between October and February where I really felt like a professional athlete,” she says. “I was the fittest I've ever been in January 2022. I set my best all-time 20-minute power. I was missing a bit at the top end, but I knew that that would come with racing. I was so excited because I felt like my body was in such a good place because I was rested, I was fresh because I was so happy to be on the bike again. And mentally, I was so, so motivated for it.”

But then, illness struck, as Banks contracted COVID-19 on the day of her planned first race in February. It could have been a quick recovery, and in fact, it was at first - she came back and raced Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen - but after that, difficulty breathing and pains in her chest persisted.

“There was a point where I kind of thought I was fine,” Banks explains about her post-COVID experience. “But actually, it turns out that some very heavy racing kicked me from some sort of subclinical pericarditis into full-blown pericarditis. As well as pericarditis, I had two pleural effusions, so fluid on both of my lungs.”

Pericarditis, an inflammation of the heart’s protective fluid-filled sac, can result from a viral infection, which in Banks’ case, she now believes to be from COVID-19. In theory, the inflammation is not serious and can be treated with medicine and rest. But, as Banks’ experience shows, it can also be hard to shake fully. 

The slow path back to professional cyclist

Like her experience with concussion, Banks’ journey to be rid of pericarditis was a somewhat convoluted one. The path back was difficult - not necessarily just because it was long, but because it was so slow, and the progress was not linear. She describes a precarious recovery, where total rest was needed, and even pushing the limits a small amount could put her back several steps.

“The reality was that basically, since the end of March, beginning of April, I wasn't able to do any exercise whatsoever,” she explains. “Like any activity - not exercise, activity, I wasn't able to do any activity. Whenever I tried, whenever I thought I was getting better, and tried to do a very small amount of activity, I would get worse again.” 

The good news for Banks is that, finally, she is starting to feel like a professional cyclist again. It’s a refrain she used in a post on Instagram a few weeks ago, a photo of herself back in the gym, and she repeats the phrase whilst talking about the last two years. It’s clearly something that has been on Banks’ mind and the point she wanted to get back to.

“Right now, being a professional cyclist is my identity,” she says. “So when that identity is taken away from you, and it was really like that, that identity rug was really swept from under my feet, that is a really difficult thing. Because you get to a point where you're like, ‘can I even call myself a professional athlete anymore?’ If I can't exercise, and I can't remember the last time I could exercise.

“I didn't realise when I was finally better,” she continues. “In late September, my husband said to me, ‘you've got your personality back. You've not been like this since February. I have not seen the real Lizzy since February’. And it was really a wake-up call that this was probably it.”

The winter was another tough period - another bout of COVID, bronchitis and a nasty cold added to the almost unbelievable bad luck Banks’ had in 2022 - but starting the new year, she is healthy, and the pericarditis is gone and has been gone for some time now.

The COVID question

Though COVID-19 has been an important thread in cycling for the last three years - whether it’s been race cancellations or testing protocols within teams - relatively little is known about how the infection will impact athletes, and the wider population, in the long term. Studies into ‘long COVID’ are still nascent, and it’s not fully understood how, why, or who will recover fully from a COVID infection and who will face longer-term consequences.

One of the hardest things, Banks notes, was seeing her fellow cyclists come off relatively unscathed from a bout of COVID whilst she suffered a whole host of complications.

“Mavi García had COVID in May, and one week later, she won her first WorldTour race,” Banks recalls, referring to García’s stage win at the Vuelta a Burgos. “It’s so difficult when you’re sitting at home, completely helpless, having done things right.

“Even though you know that it’s not a helpful thought, you can’t help but think, ‘this is so unfair. Why? Why me?’” 

Banks recognises the relatively fortunate position she is in, having access to medical care and being able to investigate her health problems fully, but is keen to use what she has learned to help others and maybe make something good out of a difficult experience. 

“People don’t speak about it,” she says of other athletes who are less open about health problems or injuries they face. “And that’s fine. That’s a personal choice. But personally, I’ve found that speaking about it has helped so many people.”

“There's a hell of a lot of people out there with COVID-induced pericarditis, who are just getting told by their GPs, ‘oh, well, it's just long COVID’. But I have a lot of answers to what you need to do in terms of investigations and who you need to go to. And so, through that process, I've been able to help a lot of people. It doesn’t make it worth it, but it is a side benefit of a bad situation.”

Getting through it

Listening to Banks talk about the various struggles of the last two years, it’s hard to imagine that any positive side effect could have made her experiences ‘worth it’. From missing out on the Tokyo Olympics and having to watch the inaugural Tour de France Femmes from the sidelines, to depressive patches and a lonely move to a new country, the physical and emotional challenges Banks has faced have been immense.

One of the lowest points, she describes, came just after the Tour de France Femmes, which was had been reporting on as part of The Cycling Podcast Féminin.

“We’d just moved to a new country, we'd been there for a week and a half, but the first week the Tour de France was a huge distraction,” she recalls. “Then my husband went to work for the first time, and suddenly I was at home alone in a country where I couldn't speak the language and didn't really know anybody. And I couldn't ride my bike, I couldn't explore this new place.

“That was when it really hit me the hardest. Everybody else seemed to have been able to be living their dream, just coming off this incredible high of the Tour de France. And I was pretty much just lying at home, completely helpless, not able to do anything. It was so hard. It was so so hard.”

The question is, then, how do you actually get back from that - after two successive setbacks, neither your fault but both career-threatening? “There were a lot of points where I genuinely didn’t know whether this would be the end of my career,” Banks confesses - where do you find the tools to try and get back to where you were?

“How did I get through it? I don’t know,” Banks responds honestly. “Most of the time, I’m a pretty positive person. And I managed to just sort of muddle through, and still sometimes see the positives or not dwell on the negative aspects.

“But there are definitely moments where you can’t keep sight of it anymore, and those moments are really hard, and that’s when I guess family and friends and my husband were the most important. Just to remind you that it’s going to be okay again.”

Eyes to the future

Speaking to Banks in January 2023, there is definitely a sense that she feels she is, first and foremost, relieved to be largely rid of the various ailments that have derailed her last two seasons.

“Things are really good now,” she says. “The biggest relief is just to be riding my bike again, to be honest, to be able to exercise again and to be able to live my life like a normal human again. Because as anybody who's experienced long COVID will know, it's just a debilitating illness that takes so many things away from you.”

But as well as appreciating where she is now and what she has been through, her mind is looking to the future. That said, he is clear in pointing out that her level is far from what she needs to return to the professional racing peloton. Her aim is to be back racing in April, but she is hesitant to hard commit to a date.

“It’s pretty fluid. I’ve got a lot of fitness to claw back,” she says. “I’ve lost so much more than I had last year, so gaining it back takes a lot longer. The other difficult thing is that, of course, there’s no soft entry into April. It’s all the hardest races of the year. But I’m hoping that by late April, I should be ready to go again.”

The Tour de France Femmes is also a huge goal, but her expectations are realistic. “I will work as hard as I possibly can,” she says. “But if I don’t get selected, it’s not going to be the end of the world.”

And so the rest of the year remains something of an unknown, but right now, things are better. She has settled into life in Geneva, she can exercise and train again, and she is making the most of the winter with some cross-country skiing. Most of all, though, she’s just looking forward to being able to race again.

Asked what she’s looking forward to most, the question is practically unanswerable.

“It’s just everything,” she smiles. “Everything. It’s great, it’s really great. I love it. I miss everything. And I want it all back.”