Leah’s story of becoming a professional cyclist is starkly different to many others in the peloton, finding cycling relatively late. Leah was very active growing up, and loved sport. It was gymnastics and athletics where she shone. After concentrating on her studies in education and teaching in Arizona, Leah only found the bike and bike racing in 2013 after suffering an injury which halted her athletics. She won a bike race, headed back to California and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

Leah started racing in 2015, in her native USA with Twenty16 development team. Following successful performances, Leah joined UnitedHealthcare team in 2018, followed by Bigla in 2019 which became Equipe Paule Ka.

 

2018 and 2019 saw Leah have strong time trial results with a fifth and seventh at the World Championships each year, and also claimed the victory at the Chrono des Nations in 2019, but within the team and in the peloton she is an all-round performer and always an integral team member.

 

During the strange year of 2020, Leah had one of her career highlights, finishing 3rd in Strade Bianche Donne – a superb example of fighting to the end. Leah had some bad luck during the race, but due to her determination and attitude of never giving up, she was on the podium at the end of the day. During 2020, Leah also won the Queen stage of the Setmana Valenciana which was another brilliant ride.

 

Later in 2020, Equipe Paule Ka folded as a team, so Leah snapped up the opportunity to be a member of the brilliant Movistar Team, where she enjoyed some strong results both as a team and individually, with a 4th place at Brabantse Pijl.

 

Hard work paid off and Leah was selected for the Tokyo Olympics, and was extremely proud to race as part of Team USA.

 

To find out more about Leah's story, listen to her episode of the Cycling Talk Podcast.