'It's crazy how much can change in a year' – Lauren Dickson's remarkable rise from cycling newbie to smashing Grand Tours with Demi Vollering

When Demi Vollering invited her FDJ United-SUEZ teammates onto the podium after winning the recent Giro d'Italia Women one face stood out. With neither sunglasses nor helmet, Lauren Dickson's smile shone brightly, but there was also the merest hint of bewilderment.

Dickson had finished 11th overall in her first Grand Tour but her performance was all the more remarkable considering how recently she began road racing. After being a runner, triathlete and duathlete she only started the sport in April 2024, the day after her 24th birthday.

Her contribution in support of Vollering at the Giro was huge. She was the Dutch woman's final mountain domestique and without her efforts there is every chance Vollering would never have overhauled Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) on that dramatic final stage.

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"We always had the goal of coming to the Giro to win, and then after the time trial, we realised that it was going to be super hard because Anna was so strong," Dickson told Cyclingnews.

"When you start the ninth stage you feel pretty awful when you know it's going to be such hard work. The girls were fighting so hard to get into the breakaway and it just wasn't going. You're really starting to wonder, 'is it actually going to be possible?'"

However, the day's main climb proved hugely selective, Dickson emerging with a group of GC riders and the stage and overall win still at stake. For the second time in just a handful of days Dickson played a key part, keeping Vollering just about close enough to a leading trio to facilitate the winning move.

"The entire race you're wondering, 'Have we left it too late? Have we done enough?' and the radio gets too far away to hear what's happening so when you cross the line you find out. It's so nice and Demi was so happy."

Where it all started

Dickson's athletic ability was spotted while playing tennis as a young child, and she began running in primary school. After representing Scotland in a multitude of disciplines and Great Britain in trail running at European and World Championships, she eventually gravitated to triathlon, where some friends were competing.

At Leeds University, she trained with both British Athletics and British Tri, but while studying in Barcelona, she focused first on triathlon and then duathlon, even racing against recent Vuelta Femenina winner, Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ). However, after competing at the European Championships, she began to suffer from a foot injury, and a visit to see her boyfriend, Picnic-PostNL rider Sean Flynn, changed everything.

"One of his housemates rides for AG [Insurance-Soudal] and she was asking about my power numbers, because I would just go out to the big climbs and try and get the QOMs, and she saw the data I'd done for a five-minute effort."

As a result, in April 2024, Dickson and Eilidh Shaw, who is now with the UAE Development Team, accidentally entered the Open category at the JG Cycles races close to Glasgow. In a field full of men, Dickson finished 44th.

"That was such a blessing because it meant I went in a huge bunch, really high pace. In the UK it's hard to get 80 women in a domestic race, so here I was with 80 men and Eilidh."

A new bike followed, as did victories, and Dickson finished in the top 10 of every domestic race she completed that season. The standout result was second place at the National Series Lancaster GP and as a result the Scottish Continental team, Handsling-Alba Development, offered her a place. She was soon racing in Belgium. That was late July and by the end of September she'd quit her job.

"I'd used all my holidays up at work, so basically, I either didn't race or I took the plunge and went full-time," Dickson explained. "By this point, I started being trained by [former pro rider] Evan Oliphant from Scottish Cycling and I was trying to do three-hour rides at 5am before work or in the dark at 10pm. Experiences like those you have for life. On the road at 5 am, it's actually quite cool but not practical for a long time. I always wanted to take a gap year and try to become a professional triathlete, so why not do it in cycling?"

That commitment led to outstanding results. There were two UCI stage race podiums, second place at the 1.1 Point du Raz in France behind Blasi then, days later, the win at the Rapha Lincoln GP, arguably the UK's most prestigious domestic race. Her first experience of WorldTour racing came at the 2025 Tour of Britain Women, the anniversary of which came on stage 7 of the Giro.

"Strava tells you what you did a year ago, and I had the recapture from the first stage of the Tour of Britain," she explains. "I had captured it as 'obliterated by the WorldTour', and I just remember at one point the road was gridlocked, I just could not figure how to move up. Now when I'm in the bunch and I'm moving through, that's when you start to think, 'crikey, it's crazy how much can change in a year'."

By then, the path to a professional contract was already starting to take shape after chatting with former British road and TT champion turned rider agent, Hannah Barnes.

"She'd seen my numbers already, and then she started speaking to teams. I'm never too sure when FDJ got in contact, I just remember she asked me, 'How would it feel if you were riding in an FDJ United-SUEZ jersey?' At the time, I just couldn't believe it. I did a race and I just remember looking at the girls in the team but still you don't think it would happen."

After a chat with the team manager, Stephen Delcourt, her future was sealed with a two-year contract.

As she found out at the Tour of Britain last year, you can have all the athletic ability but, if you can't handle your bike and navigate a peloton, success is hard to come by. To ensure she began the learning process as early as possible Dickson made her debut for the French team in January at the Tour Down Under.

"Because the bunch is slightly smaller, it's a perfect place to learn," Dickson says. "Even coming into roundabouts last year I'd have been losing 10 positions with so much energy accelerating up again, whereas now I come into a roundabout and I either hold position or I gain position and that's not pedalling, that's not extra watts."

Not only is her positioning now better than others who've been in the bunch far longer, but we saw in the Giro that her descending is also much more than adequate.

"I do descending lessons once or twice a week, and I really think it's worth it. If you want to be the best, you need to make sure every little detail is in place. It's skills more than just descending. I did [learn to] bunny hop last year, and in the Giro two girls crashed in front of me and I bunny hopped over the bike. Had I not been able to jump I would have crashed and not been there to help Demi, so it's all the little things that add up."

It's this kind of dedication, focus, and desire to become a professional athlete that has brought Dickson to the top of the sport but it may never have happened at all given she suffered multiple injuries when hit by a car while training in 2019.

"I broke my neck and all my ribs," she says. "That was a really key moment in my life. It took six months before I could even get out of bed properly and, the first time I rode my bike, the bars dropped. I just remember we were stood at the side of the road with me crying. My dad asked, 'do you want to turn back or do you want to carry on?' The fact we carried on, riding through Edinburgh still crying, but I didn't give up, and I think that is super poignant."

Dickson will need some of that resolve over the coming weeks after breaking her collarbone in a crash at the Tour de Suisse Women. However, that injury comes at the end of a string of results any rider, let alone a first-year pro, would be happy with. Her 13 top 10 finishes include two GC podium places, one of which was the WorldTour level Itzulia Women.

Dickson's journey to the top of the sport might have been short, but her story perfectly illustrates how she makes the most of her physicality. She's quickly become an accomplished climber and stage racer, and it may not be too long before she's also challenging for her own Grand Tour results.