Lisa Brennauer won the European Championships Gold in the team pursuit, silver in the individual pursuit, achieved a fourth place in the road race and a twelfth place in the time trial.
We ring the bell at nine o'clock sharp, as agreed. Lisa Brennauer opens the door to her two-room flat on the outskirts of Durach. It is the Tuesday after her last race, the European Road Championships in Munich, with which she ended her long cycling career. The 34-year-old is wearing jeans, a T-shirt and socks - and starts by making us a cappuccino.
Lisa Brennauer - Traces of a great career
Lisa Brennauer's flat is full of memorabilia from her great career. The most important medals on the shelf behind glass: World Championships, European Championships, German Championships, Olympics - "only the ones since 2019", she says succinctly, "there are many more". Particularly impressive is the large, round Olympic medal weighing more than 500 grams, which lies in a velvet-lined box. A jersey from the German Championships hangs on a hanger on the door to the room, while the latest European Championship jersey from the team pursuit hangs over the back of the chair. The walls are adorned with framed World Championship and European Championship jerseys and medals, and a colourful stripe in World Championship colours runs across one wall at eye level ("I painted it myself").
And in a drawer are the Federal President's Silver Badge of Honour, the Bavarian Order of Merit and a Cross of Honour from the German Armed Forces. Behind the dining table leans the piece of wood from the cycling track that Brennauer received as a farewell gift in Munich, next to it a mirror, framed by a wheel, with the signatures of her colleagues from the national team. Cards, letters, flowers on the table ...
Lisa Brennauer - about the person
- Born8 June 1988 in Kempten
- Place of residenceDurach near Kempten
- Size1.68 metres
- Weightt: 63 kilogrammes
- Marital statusin a relationship with Sebastian Nittke
Teams
- 2009 Equipe Nürnberger 2010-2011 Hitec Products
- 2012-2017 Specialised-Lululemon / Velocio-SRAM / Canyon/SRAM
- 2018 Wiggle High5
- 2019-2022 WNT rotor / Ceratizit-WNT
Most important successes
Olympic champion with the track foursome in 2021, 30 medals at world and European championships, including 13 gold; 14 times German champion; 8 stage wins, including twice in the Tour of Thuringia; 25 stage wins; second in Ghent-Wevelgem 2016; second in the Tour of Flanders 2021; fourth in Paris-Roubaix 2021
Interview with Lisa Brennauer
Interview Angelika Rauw, 23 August 2022
TOUR: How are you feeling after these two intensive weeks in Munich?
Lisa Brennauer: When I woke up this morning, I didn't know where I was or what bike race it was today. Until I realised: You don't even have a race anymore, not even training! That's not so easy for me - and it feels good and right at the same time. To be honest, I couldn't have chosen a better way to end my career.
TOUR: How did you experience the European Championships?
Brennauer: Those were special emotions, a constant up and down: you become European champion and celebrate your farewell at the same time, but the next day you want to fight for another title in a race that will be your last. Doing four farewell races wasn't the easiest choice. But it was nice to be able to race all my favourite disciplines again. And especially against this backdrop, with the grandstands packed to the rafters! How the people celebrated, how many came to see me! Even after the time trial with the super bad twelfth place, people came up to me and clapped. That's when I realised that they didn't care whether I won or not, they saw the person behind it. I thought that was so cool.
Click through: Time trial bikes from the European Championships
TOUR: Were you able to focus on the sport again during the races? Or were you constantly thinking: This is the last time?
Brennauer: I found it easiest in the road race, but it was also easy in the quad because you have responsibility for others: We ride at 60 km/h on the rear wheel, every change has to be right. I really realised it in the single pursuit when I was at the start and the bike ticked down. This beeping is such a distinctive sound - most people hate it because they don't like the pressure. I've always loved it. I was standing there, heard the beep - and had to grin. I knew that was the last time, but it was a totally positive feeling.
TOUR: You were showered with praise at the end of your career. Were you able to accept that?
Brennauer: That touched me, I didn't expect that. I didn't realise what I meant to many people - to some athletes or coaches, but also to people outside the sport. For example, how they see my contribution to the development of women's cycling. That's nice. I can accept that. I just wonder why I didn't realise that before. I'm self-confident, but I think I sometimes underestimated my influence on others - including young athletes. I could perhaps have made a much bigger impact.
TOUR: Your former team-mate Trixi Worrack has praised you for the fact that you can really party away from the races, for example in Rio.
Brennauer: (laughs) She means the party after the Olympic competitions in the German House. We really stepped on the gas there.
TOUR: What is it like when you step on the gas?
Brennauer: Well, then I'll dance. I'm not actually very good at dancing, but that doesn't bother me - I'll just jump across the dance floor. I'm also the kind of person who doesn't press home at one o'clock. Once I'm in, it's hard to get me off the dance floor again.
TOUR: How was the farewell party after the European Championships?
Brennauer: Really nice. We wanted to have a cosy evening because many of us had to travel to the competition afterwards. We had reserved a huge table in a restaurant in Landsberg for us riders and carers, but also for my friends. After dinner, we went to a bar, although we didn't really like the music. We asked if they could play something else that we could dance to. They actually did that.
TOUR: Sounds like a fun bunch.
Brennauer: In any case. We were a fun group anyway. How cool that exactly the four of us from the track foursome also rode in the road race (at the European Championships, editor's note) - plus Franzi (Koch), Liane (Lippert), Lin (Teutenberg) and Romy Kasper, with whom I had already been to a training camp as a junior. You could tell in the road race that this is a group that doesn't just harmonise on the bike.
TOUR: Cycling is both an individual and a team sport. There are pure individual competitions, real team competitions, but above all races in which you compete as a team, but in the end only one of you ends up on the podium. How did you feel in this area of conflict?
Brennauer: I've always seen myself more as a team athlete who also does individual disciplines than the other way round. Is it a field of tension? There are certainly situations where you ask yourself whether your team-mate has really given her all or tried to get into the top ten herself. But if everyone in such a team construct gets their chance at the right time and knows how to take it, it's a give and take.
TOUR: So you have to manage the field of tension?
Brennauer: Full! You need a great sporting director who knows how to assess that. When is a rider ready to be exposed to the pressure of having a team working for her? And then there are riders who thrive in their job as a helper and don't like the pressure of having to win a race. You have to recognise that and make the right use of it in such a team structure.
TOUR: What role does the team captain play in the construct?
Brennauer: As a leader, you can motivate people even more to give it their all. I've always tried to make it clear that we're all on the same level and that without everyone giving their best for me, it won't be enough for me in the end. I think that's an important point, whether people decide to give 100 or 120 per cent for you. For me, that was never a given. And I hope that other leaders also realise that it's a bit problematic that only one person ever gets the glory and the podium.
TOUR: A few years ago, one could get the impression that you didn't really trust yourself to be a leader.
Brennauer: That was also the case. Sure, I was junior world champion (2005), but it was years before I was good enough to win in the women's category. This phase totally characterised me - because I was the helper, I fetched the bottles. When the leader said for the first time that I was a great helper, it really gave me a lot.
TOUR: How did the captain's role come about?
Brennauer: I'll never forget it - that was in 2014, when the women's race La Course took place for the first time as part of the Tour. After arriving, Ronny Lauke (Sports Director at Specialized-Lululemon) said to me: "Lisa, we'll ride for you tomorrow. Are you ready?" I said: "Yes, of course", but I thought "Oh God!". I finished fourth. After that, in the world championship road race, where I came second, the national team rode for me for the first time. Then came 2015 and the many successes. But I was also a helper later on. I don't need to be the leader in the Giro d'Italia, I can't get up the mountain.
TOUR: You describe yourself as a perfectionist, so you loved the discipline of time trialling because you could determine every detail. That only works to a limited extent in a team. How do you put up with being a perfectionist when others are perhaps not so perfectionist?
Brennauer: (laughs) Sometimes you have to hide that a bit. Not everyone pins their race number on the inside of their jersey because it's more aerodynamic than pinning it on the outside. Sometimes you just have to accept that people are different. That's a great thing. For example, in my current team Ceratizit, I have team-mates from Mexico, Spain, Scandinavia and Germany - the cultural difference alone is so big. You can manage that with tolerance and openness. But if I can, I'll definitely play the perfectionist card (laughs).
TOUR: And when everything fits, gold comes out of it, like now with the track foursome in Munich. Four very different riders have merged into one unit.
Brennauer: We have one thing in common: we can switch off like that. We have fun, laugh, get up to mischief, Mieke (Kröger) and Franzi (Franziska Brauße) sing around in training. But when it comes to the competition, we're absolute competitive types. Everyone is focussed to the max, everyone wants to win. That's the key to success - the relaxed attitude on the one hand, but then the determination to achieve something. There are perhaps also a few perfectionists among us (laughs).
TOUR: In the past, you always cited the 2014 World Championships, where you won two gold medals and one silver, as your greatest success. Since Tokyo, you've mentioned your Olympic victory with the track foursome. What other moments are unforgettable for you?
Brennauer: The European Championships in Glasgow 2018 were outstanding for me, where I won medals again for the first time internationally - after two years in which I wasn't so successful. I'll also never forget the time with Velocio-SRAM when we won all the tours (2015). We were the best team in the world back then. The phase after the coronavirus lockdown in 2020 was also unforgettable: the first race I rode was Strade Bianche - in summer, at 42 degrees. I was so good, came seventh - on a course that I never thought I would be able to ride to the front. But we only talk about successes. You experience so much in the sport, make friends, go on great trips. I met my partner in sport.
TOUR: There have also been more difficult phases in your career: things didn't go so well in 2016 and 2017 - and your return to the track after a four-year break initially ended with a crash and broken arm. Where did the crisis come from?
Brennauer: A lot of things came together. I was in the same team for six years, it was simply time for new input, new goals, new ways of working. And I think I also expected too much of myself, put too much pressure on myself, for example in Rio 2016. I wanted to do so much right that I somehow did everything wrong. That's the way it is in life: Sometimes you swim at the top, sometimes at the bottom. To be honest, I've hardly had any setbacks in my career anyway. I've always worked. I just didn't work so well for a year and a half, although I still had good success - just less than I was used to.
TOUR: What did you take away from this phase?
Brennauer: To appreciate winning again. The hardest time is when things aren't going so well - and you're always being asked why it wasn't enough. At some point I realised that I had to change something. Then came the big change: a new team after six years (Wiggle High5) and a new coach. And then I was back on the track bike for the first time in four years (2017). I had forgotten how awesome it was! The feeling on the track, the cornering pressure, the speed - I was immediately hooked again. I think that was the spark that got the fire burning again. Then came the team switch to WNT (now Ceratizit) in 2019, where I was given everything I needed to work my way back up. I felt comfortable in the family environment and was given a lot of freedom to pursue my new goals on the track.
TOUR: Some people don't get back on their feet after setbacks. Is it predisposition, how well you cope with it, how you deal with pressure?
Brennauer: I think it depends on the type of person to a certain extent, I realise that people deal with pressure differently. But I haven't had that many health problems in my career - that was an advantage. Having to work your way up again and again takes an enormous amount of strength.
Doing four farewell races wasn't the easiest choice. But it was nice to be able to race all my favourite disciplines again.
TOUR: You regularly sought support from a mental coach. Are people in cycling more open to this now?
Brennauer: Yes, society in general has become more open to addressing problems. For athletes, the most important thing is to admit that there is a problem that you can't solve on your own and to seek help.
TOUR: The first time you got help because you were afraid of the mass starts in the points race on the track. What problems did you have later on?
Brennauer: There was never such a huge problem as back then, but there were smaller issues, things that didn't go so well. For example, I always had a lot of respect for uphill races - we worked on that. Or in the time around the crash, there was a phase in which I made everyday things much bigger than they were, which influenced me in my sport.
TOUR: The start of the 2020 pandemic, the lockdown and the cancellation of all competitions, including the Olympic Games in Tokyo, was a difficult phase for everyone. How did you get through this time?
Brennauer: When the Olympics were cancelled, I needed a week off. I first had to come to terms with the fact that the biggest event of my career was taking place a year later. My coach, but also my whole environment, family and friends, were a great support for me during that time - as they have been throughout my entire career. After the week, I had accepted it. My coach made me realise that we now had time to build something, to make my big engine even bigger. I had a lot of time for strength training, did a lot of foundation training, but above all very long intervals, a lot on the time trial bike.
TOUR: Does that mean you were able to shape this time positively?
Brennauer: The whole corona situation in all its horror was there, of course, as it is for everyone, including the fears. But I was still in a sport that I could train in. In Germany, I was allowed to go anywhere on my bike. My colleagues in Italy, Spain and France were locked up, they trained on the roller on the balcony. During that time, I learnt how wonderful training can actually be and rediscovered the Allgäu. And I had a lot of time to review everything I had achieved in the previous years. That was an important phase for me.
TOUR: You had the Olympics as a big goal that you could hold on to.
Brennauer: I was very lucky. I also didn't have any existential fears like others in sport - on the one hand because of the Bundeswehr, and on the other because of my team Ceratizit, which continued to pay us athletes. That's a completely different basis than if you don't know how you're going to pay the rent tomorrow. Some people had a really hard time, I realise that.
TOUR: Which other race would you have liked to have won in your career?
Brennauer: A big spring classic, Paris-Roubaix or the Tour of Flanders. Roubaix was actually still a big goal this year, but unfortunately I had corona.
TOUR: Does Paris-Roubaix have this significance because it is a legend and there is now also a women's race, or is it the race itself that suits you?
Brennauer: It is the first aspect - as with the Tour de France. The fact that these races have such significance, such a tradition, makes them something special. It is impossible to imagine cycling without them. It's the same for young male and female athletes: you think about what it would mean to take part or even win. That's why I really wanted to do well there (she came fourth in the first edition).
The hardest time is when things aren't going so well - and you're constantly being asked why it wasn't enough.
TOUR: Could women's cycling lose something through increasing professionalisation? The closeness for spectators, for example?
Brennauer: Maybe something like that is getting a little lost, but I still feel that the development is very positive - and above all, there are still huge steps to be taken. We are in a phase in which things are growing and growing. But now the structures have to grow with it. The calendar is getting fuller and fuller, but the teams don't have enough female drivers to cope with everything. Men's teams have 30 riders, we have 12 to 16 female riders. The support staff, physiotherapists and mechanics also have to grow with us. It will be exciting to see what happens over the next few years.
TOUR: You would like to stay professionally connected to the sport. Regardless of whether this is realistic - which of these jobs would appeal to you: national coach, sports director of a team, race director or mental coach?
Brennauer: (ponders for a while) Difficult, I think mental coach or national coach. Because I think I have a good connection with people. As a national coach, you could motivate people for something, form a unit out of a motley group and get the best out of them. This is also reflected in mental coaching. My career aspirations in the past always went in the direction of teaching, physiotherapy or osteopathy - in other words, supporting people in some way. I started training as an alternative practitioner because I actually wanted to become an osteopath. I haven't completed it yet, but it's still ongoing.
TOUR: There is currently no woman in a key position in the German Cycling Federation. BDR performance sport director Patrick Moster has already spoken favourably about a national coach job for you.
Brennauer: I've read that too. The fact is that I don't yet know exactly what will happen next. I have to talk to the Bundeswehr first, I've been a professional soldier since last year, I'm a civil servant with a lifelong commitment.
I first have to find out what I really like to eat - without thinking about what's in it for me.
TOUR: Would that go hand in hand with a role in sport?
Brennauer: That is possible, but it has to be a federal task. So I can't say I want to work as a sports director at Ceratizit, for example. But I can also do other things within the Bundeswehr - for example, lead a sports promotion group or work as a sports sergeant. That's a kind of sports instructor in the Bundeswehr for soldiers who are currently doing a course.
TOUR: What will you miss most after your career?
Brennauer: (ponders) I'll have to wait and see. Certainly moments like this (she points to the picture of the victory ceremony for the European Championship track foursome), when you celebrate together and enjoy what you have achieved together.
TOUR: So in retrospect, the joint success is more important than your own success?
Brennauer: Yes, because joy only ever counts if you can share it. Of course I can share with people what I have achieved on my own. But what does 'achieved alone' mean? I may have been alone on the bike, but I didn't achieve it on my own! There was someone in the car guiding me along the course by radio. Someone prepared my bike in the best possible way. A physiotherapist treated me, so many people and trainers spent weeks and months preparing me.
TOUR: Did you always realise that this was a privilege?
Brennauer: Yes, I've always appreciated that, but looking back I've realised it even more. The passion with which other people try to create a platform for you so that you can perform at your best. I mean the physiotherapists who carry your laundry after you, get your water bottle ready and you come down, put your helmet on and just get on your bike. You don't even have to inflate a tyre. Also, what part a coach plays in such a construct, I was in contact with him every day. Now I haven't spoken to him on the phone for two days.
TOUR: Maybe you can call him again to train. How does that actually work?
Brennauer: I have no idea. I haven't given it any thought. But I'll certainly give him a call (laughs).
TOUR: You once said that you put in all the effort, the daily training, just for the feeling of winning. What replaces that feeling now?
Brennauer: I don't know that yet either. There must be new goals now. How do you deal with that? Until now, everyone has always had to follow my lead, my friends and family. But at the same time, I didn't like that so much. My whole life has always revolved around cycling. The alarm clock rings and you think about it: What am I going to have for breakfast today that will be good for training? I ate rice at eight o'clock in the morning before the start of road races. I first have to find out what I actually really like to eat without thinking about what it's good for. I will never eat rice at eight o'clock again!
