Photo Credit: Ese Ukpeseraye/Instagram
Ese Lovina Ukpeseraye has hung up her wheels. Nigeria’s trailblazing professional cyclist has announced her retirement from the sport, and the caption she shared alongside a collage of career highlights did not mince words:
After many years of service, I am announcing my retirement from professional cycling. I step away with a deep sense of pride and peace and I am proud of the achievements and memories made throughout my career. Looking forward to a new chapter. It’s time to stop working like a lion and eating like an ant. Best regards, Ese Lovina Ukpeseraye.
She became serious about cycling in 2013, introduced to the sport by a friend in her village who always saw her riding local bicycles. From Delta State to the biggest stages in world cycling, the journey covered a lot of ground. She lost both parents along the way, and credits her mother in particular for supporting her at a young age, allowing her to leave home to pursue the sport when many would have said no. “If not for her, I might not be where I am today,” she said in a 2023 interview.
The wins came, and they were significant. In 2018, she travelled to Asmara, Eritrea, where she won gold and silver at an African Cup event. She won multiple gold medals at the African track cycling championships, as well as the gold medal in the road race at the 2023 African Road Championships. In 2022, she won eight gold medals at a single National Sports Festival in Asaba, Delta State, one of the most remarkable individual performances in Nigerian sports festival history. She also competed at the 2021 and 2023 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.
Then came Paris 2024, the crowning chapter of her career. Ese became the first Nigerian cyclist ever to compete at the Olympics, qualifying for three separate events including one road race and two track cycling competitions. Her entry into the Keirin and Sprint events came at extremely short notice after Egypt lost their place, and Nigeria had not packed any track bikes. The German team stepped in and lent her a bicycle to compete. She raced anyway, and posted a flying lap time of 11.652 seconds in the Sprint qualifying, a personal best.
After the Paris Olympics, she signed with CANYON//SRAM Zondacrypto and spent a season racing in the European peloton, making a strong impression with a 14th-place finish at the UCI 1.1 Veenendaal-Veenendaal Classic, a tough Dutch semi-classic.
