Lauretta Hanson

Growing up in the Macedon Ranges in central Victoria, Lauretta Hanson tried her hand at a bunch of different sports from dancing to taekwondo – but ultimately, it was cycling that would stick.

Although her mother, Heather, was a cycling national champion (she won the road race title in 1981), it wasn’t until she was 8 years old started racing bikes.

It was around that time her local cycling club had a rejuvenation and she followed her cousins as they started racing.

She gradually progressed from local club races, to state level racing, to be selected for her first state team and racing nationally.  

When she was 18, she packed her bags and headed to America with the plan to race criteriums for a month before having a holiday in Europe and eventually returning to Australia.

That one month turned into six years after she was offered an athletic scholarship at Milligan College in Tennessee in 2014. In 2016 she signed with her first UCI team Colavita-Bianchi, then, in 2019, she landed a contract with one of the world’s biggest teams: Trek-Segafredo, now Lidl-Trek, where she has been since.

The 29-year-old has since built a reputation as one of the most reliable domestiques in the peloton with Lidl-Trek.

Where you’ll often see her chasing down breakaways, hauling bottles or towing her teammates to the front of the race: Hanson is the ultimate team player.

In 2021 Hanson made her debut for the Australian Cycling Team at the UCI Road World Championships. She was again part of the team that raced last year in Glasgow, hanging on to finish 23^rd in tough conditions on a technical circuit.

Hanson will make her Olympic debut in the women’s road race in Paris.