Leigh Hobson

Leigh Hobson was born in 1970 in Kitchener, Ontario, and excelled in the sport of road cycling. During university, she competed in triathlons, an endurance race combining swimming, running, and cycling. Leigh heard about a local cycling race, entered, and finished her first novice competition. The race’s title sponsor, the local outlet of a national cycling retailer, granted her their jersey. She joined their cycling club and began racing in earnest in 1995.

By 1997, Leigh was racing on her first professional team, the Shaklee Team in California. Her goal was to peak at the right time to be selected for national team projects.

At the women’s elite division of the Canadian Championships, Leigh placed third in each of 1996, 2000, and 2006. She finished first at the Tri-Peak Challenge in 2006, and in 2008 won the fourth stage of Tour de Gila in New Mexico.

In 2008, Leigh was one of only two Canadian riders on the Cheerwine Women’s Cycling Team, based in North Carolina. She was inspired by the solid core of women cyclists who were committed to the team and each other.

The same year, Leigh competed at the women’s cycling World Cup race in Montreal. This was the final qualifying event to represent Canada at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She placed third, earned the bronze medal and, significantly, a spot on the Canadian Olympic cycling team. She raced on her 38th birthday and was rewarded for her efforts with the cycling team’s seventeenth place standing.

This feat was all the more remarkable because Leigh had broken her collarbone four times over two years. In 2000, she took a hiatus from cycling and competition, had surgery and took time to recover, then shifted her focus to teaching at the high school level.

Leigh advocates for women who want to pursue a professional cycling career. Her advice: “One of the most fulfilling parts of cycling is to contribute to the success of a teammate and ultimately the success of the team. … Because there is not a lot of money in women’s cycling (relative to other professional sports), the incentive to work as a team comes down to the rider’s feeling of security on that team…be it financial, social or emotional. Everyone on the team needs to feel valued and needs to have the opportunity to fulfill her own goals as well as the team goals. It’s a definite challenge in women’s racing.”

Upon her return to teaching at Galt Collegiate, Leigh has run a mountain bike team for the last 10 years – introducing students and fellow teachers to the wonderful sport of cycling.