CYCLING

DEFENDING champion Lizzie Deignan had to settle for fourth place in the women’s road race UCI Road World Championships in Doha. Amalie Dideriksen of Denmark took gold, winning a bunch sprint at the end of the 134-kilometres race ahead of Holland’s Kirsten Wild. Lotta Lepisto of Finland was third.

Great Britain’s Deignan, formerly Armitstead, who won the title in Richmond, Virginia, last year, had played down her chances on the flat Doha route, having focused her season on the hilly Olympic Games road race in Rio, where she also finished outside the medals, in fifth.

Deignan said: “In the finishing straight I was just legless. I didn’t have energy to kick. If I had prepared for this I might have done some sprint training and put myself in a position to win. But [Dideriksen] is a deserved champion.”

The event concludes with the men’s race today. Mark Cavendish is bidding for a second world title following his 2011 triumph in Copenhagen.