Cyclist
‘I don’t want to settle for another second place at the Worlds’: Niamh Fisher-Black Q&A
When you joined Lidl-Trek ahead of 2025, you talked about needing to learn and grow. How have you developed since moving to the team?
My biggest thing was learning to have confidence in myself, as I didn’t really have that from the beginning. Also that’s helped a little bit in the team, because in having confidence you begin to race a little bit differently. By the end of 2025 I was taking chances and playing a bit more; I was not afraid to try.
Becoming a leader takes time and growing up a little bit. When the team says, ‘We ride for Niamh today,’ I think a lot of people take for granted how easy learning to do that may be – it’s not something that comes easily to me. It’s been a learning curve, but I feel like a different rider to the one I was when I joined, which is really cool and promising.
Is confidence and leadership something you learn by doing or can you do tangible things – read books, listen to podcasts – to improve it?
Mostly I learn from the people around me. I think Elisa Balsamo is a really good role model of a really strong leader; Lizzie Deignan was too. I could name countless riders. Maybe they don’t realise I’m always watching what they’re doing.
Coming from SD Worx with stars such as Demi Vollering, Anna van der Breggen and Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, was it intimidating or were you able to learn a lot from it?
I would never say it was intimidating. Personally, I always considered myself lesser than them, maybe because I am a younger, still-developing rider, and that makes it strange for me now, going into races and putting myself on a par with Demi Vollering. But I have to see it like that if I want to compete against her and them. It’s a change of mindset.
A lot of pro cyclists take suffering for granted as they’re so used to it. Can you put into words what it really feels like when racing for the rainbow jersey or the Tour de France Femmes podium?
It’s different every time. The way I felt in the Tour de France fight was very different to the World Championships. I think a lot of what we do is not letting emotion in too much. It’s a difficult balance because sometimes I would look back on a race and think, ‘If I just pushed a bit harder or wanted it a bit more.’ But it’s not like that.
So much about performance these days is so calculated, and obviously you wouldn’t be able to do it if you didn’t really want something. It’s what drives us in the end, that competitiveness. For sure, in a race like the Tour de France my body does crazy things in the last few days; you wouldn’t expect it’s possible to do your best performances after seven days straight of racing when you couldn’t do it fresh in training.
Did you have any role models while growing up in New Zealand?
I mostly watched men’s cycling with my dad and brother. It was all you could watch in those days. We had a local pro, George Bennett, breaking into the WorldTour when I was younger. He was a big role model. Obviously, I had my [younger] brother Finn cycling with me, inspiring me all the way through.
Is there competition with Finn, who races for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe?
Once upon a time it was proper competition but now we are super-supportive and jokingly competitive, saying things like, ‘I’ve got more wins than you.’ We know by now how many ups and downs this sport can bring, so I’m lucky to have someone so close in a similar position as a sounding board.
It might be strange to think, but you’re the role model now. You were second in the 2025 World Championships Road Race. Have you had a sense of the reaction back home to that performance?
It’s a funny and strangely fulfilling thing. I don’t go back very often so I’m not in touch much with New Zealanders and the cycling scene, so sometimes I guess I feel a little bit forgotten. But when things like that happen, you realise, ‘Wow, all these people are still watching me.’ I can feel they’re so proud, even with that distance.
If you could invent your dream one-day race anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I wouldn’t have to invent it – New Zealand used to have an awesome UCI race called the Gravel and Tar Classic [postponed since 2024], with 40km or 50km of gravel. Proper New Zealand gravel, not this European or Strade Bianche gravel.
What are your big goals?
2025 was a bit of an eye-opener for me, fuel for the fire, because I felt like I started to really play with the top athletes in the big races, and now I’m really hungry to get a win – in a stage race, Grand Tour or a Classic. And I don’t want to settle for another second place at the Worlds, that’s for sure.
Do you have a special skill or party trick away from the bike?
I tried to take up knitting in the off-season but I quickly realised that you spend a lot of money on wool, a lot of time doing it and you get pretty sub-par pieces out of it. At least it’s trying something new. I always try to do something different like learning languages. I like to keep learning.
Lastly, as you’ve highlighted on your Instagram profile, your name is pronounced ‘neev’, but how often do you get called different, butchered versions by people in Europe?
I’m just used to responding to ‘ni-am’. There are many different versions of my name that I’ll turn my head to – and these days I don’t even correct people, to be honest.
The post ‘I don’t want to settle for another second place at the Worlds’: Niamh Fisher-Black Q&A appeared first on Cyclist.