You don’t get to be World Champion on your own. Trek-Segafredo’s Lizzie Deignan is the first to admit it takes a village. This doesn’t take away from the triumph, it adds to it. And so it is with all of the best things in life: they’re better when they’re shared, and they’re impossible when they’re not.

This is a story about what really matters. Not the wins, not the trophies, not even the stripes—but the relationships you forge on your way to achieving them, and how partners, friends, and teammates can become family.

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