Lizzie Stannard is forever on the move. Lizzie was born in Sydney, Australia, but grew up in New Zealand, where her mom, a civil engineer, and her dad, a professor of human performance, moved to and opened a café when she was a child.

From the start, sports have been a constant in Lizzie’s life. Her parents had met cycling in Australia and always encouraged her and her brothers to go play outdoors. That often meant ripping around on bikes. Lizzie had a hard time choosing just one sport however. In high school, she took up triathlon and was soon racing world cups. Training to be world-class in three sports while studying political science at university got to be too much.

Lizzie decided to focus on cycling, because it was the most fun. She and a friend went on a massive road trip to North America and raced everywhere they could. After that trip, Lizzie was hooked. When she got home, she passed up opportunities to pursue careers in academia and business and moved to Melbourne to race with a small Australian team. She did well there and was soon off to Europe, first to Italy and then to Girona, to try to make it in the big leagues.

Coming to Girona is one of the best decisions Lizzie has ever made. In the Catalan cycling mecca, she has made great friends. She loves riding with them through the hills and mountains near the city. All that riding has shown in her performances. In 2022, Lizzie won the Euganissima Flandres and finished seventh overall at the Giro Toscana Internazionale Femminile. In 2023, she finished second on a stage at the Vuelta Andalucia Ruta del Sol and tenth overall at the ReVolta, while riding the second most race days of any rider in the women’s peloton. Lizzie is determined to keep getting faster and keep learning.

If she weren’t a racer, she would probably be doing a PhD. For now, she will stick to reading every book she can and being a student of her sport.