Hannah Frankson Reveals the Full Story Behind Her Peloton Hire

Hannah Frankson Opens Up on the Road to Peloton

The UK instructor traces her path from national-level athletics to a nine-month audition, in a new episode of Hormones and Heroines with broadcaster Sarah-Jane Crawford.

Hannah Frankson has spent years sharing pieces of her story in class. On the May 11, 2026 episode of Hormones and Heroines, titled How Heartbreak and Failure Built a Peloton Icon: Hannah Frankson,  those pieces finally come together. In a conversation with UK broadcaster Sarah-Jane Crawford, Frankson walks through the full arc of her life before Peloton: the sprint tracks, the failed Olympic bid, the broken engagement, and the audition process that eventually changed everything.

For members who have trained with her through her cycling rides, HIIT and Hills series, Power Zone classes, and Tread workouts, the episode delivers something genuinely satisfying. The fragments land differently when you hear them in order.

Who Is Sarah-Jane Crawford and What is the Hormones and Heroines Podcast?

For American listeners unfamiliar with the host, Crawford is a well-established figure in UK broadcasting. She built her career across BBC Radio 1Xtra, Channel 4, E4, and MTV, interviewing names including Robert De Niro, Usher, and Nicole Scherzinger over nearly two decades in media. She co-presented E!’s live coverage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding from Windsor Castle in 2018. Her podcast, Hormones and Heroines, covers women’s health, reinvention, and the realities of building a life that does not follow a preset script. Crawford is also a Peloton member, and her familiarity with Frankson’s classes gives the conversation genuine warmth without losing focus.

Click above to watch the episode on YouTube

The Athletic Years

Frankson grew up in Essex, and by her early teens had identified triple jump as her event. She broke the national record almost immediately after she was old enough to compete in the discipline, and spent the years leading up to the 2012 London Olympics pursuing a qualifying standard she ultimately fell just short of. She was, by her own account, a broken woman by the end of it, training through chronic tendonitis, waking in pain at night, unable to sit for long stretches without her knees flaring up.

She never formally declared she was done. Instead, she let one door close slowly while another opened, first through a Puma internship and then through a growing passion for spin instruction at London studio Boom Cycle.

If you had a similar experience with athletics in your own youth, or you parented children who leaned heavily into their sports, this section of the interview was interesting to listen to. Hannah brings interesting hindsight to her choices that she’s clearly reflected on, and we get a glimpse into her everyday life before she became who we see through our Peloton screens today. She also speaks about her feelings being a mixed race child in a predominantly white area growing up, and how that too informed her athletic and social choices.

The Breakup That Changed Her Teaching

Around the same time as she was beginning to see the benefits of being a working professional versus an overtrained athlete, Hannah was in a long-term relationship with a fellow spin instructor. They were engaged, had set a wedding date, and had purchased property together. When the relationship ended, it compounded what she already carried about missing the Olympics.

She has alluded to this chapter in many rides. But what was new in listening, was hearing how this was, by her account, is when she got good at teaching. With the lights down and a room full of people in front of her, she started saying the things she needed to hear. The messages landed. The classes filled. The coaching voice members know today began taking shape in those sessions.

She recalls in the early days of her teaching, how her partner’s classes would constantly be full and hers were not. As a fan of her coaching, this little anecdote makes me even happier to be able to celebrate her professional success with Peloton.

 

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Check out Hannah’s Instagram for a wide variety of content – helpful, funny, informative

The Nine-Month Audition

When Peloton came calling in 2019, Hannah Frankson already knew what it meant. Her former partner had been considered (and rejected!) for the original UK instructor cohort that included Ben Alldis and Leanne Hainsby. When they reached out to her (and yes, it was via Cody), she was ready in a way she had not been the first time around.

She was not prepared for the length of the process (something we also learned recently from new instructor Greta Dopp). The audition ran approximately nine months and involved conversations with producers, instructors, and staff across multiple rounds. If you love hearing instructors’ audition stories, you will want to listen in to this.

Hannah reflects on it with genuine respect. A role built around coaching thousands of members daily, drawing on personal vulnerability and real experience, should require more than a strong audition. Peloton, in her view, was thorough for exactly that reason. And if you take her classes now, you can feel all that she brings us through the screen.

Beyond the Classes

The episode also covers her current chapter: six years into her Peloton career, newly in her own home (thanking her Dad for being her on-call repairman!), being as a #catmom, actively dating, enjoying solo travel, time with her Mum, and spending Monday evenings in a London choir called Some Voices. She froze her eggs last year and speaks about it openly.

She is also a lululemon Ambassador and she spoke about being able to attend the recent Paris Olympics with them. She had manifested “going to the Olympics” as her dream since childhood, and she jokes that while she didn’t make it as a competitor, she was fortunate to be sent with lululemon and thus she did technically get there. But she probably should have been more specific in her early manifestations, she laughs. She acknowledges proudly that she still got there on her own merit, being selected to work with them is an accomplishment in its own right.

The throughline is something Hannah says directly: she owes everything to a sand pit (from her triple jump days). Every chapter she thought was a dead end turned out to be the thing that made the next one possible. It is the same perspective she brings to the platform every time she teaches, and hearing it in full context makes the classes land differently.

Hannah Frankson is one of the Peloton instructors who brings a unique vibe and coaching style to the Platform, and to me, it wouldn’t be the same without her. I’ve written extensively about her coaching and her class structure. If you already love her, you will really enjoy listening to this podcast conversation. If you don’t train with her yet, check her out in this interview. Sure, she’s a Matt Wilpers Power Zone protegee but she’s also a creative musical playlister, a motivating accountability partner, and a down to earth presence whose “push push” vibe reaches for the stars. She will draw the hard work out of you but give you plenty of self deprecating laughs along the way.

The episode is available wherever you listen to podcasts including Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.

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