Interview ‘Women’s cycling has not been a last resort in the slightest’

Hthe Women’s World Tour returns today and plans for the rest of the calendar have left Lizzie Deignan feeling positive

Cycling along the chalky roads that wind through Tuscany’s Senese region, according to Britain’s Lizzie Deignan, is like “racing through a painting”. Such is the artistic charm of Strade Bianche, a race against time, rock and dust, which marks the return of the World Tour today.

It is an event in which Deignan, who has spent the past five weeks acclimatising in Malaga ahead of leading Trek-segafredo alongside Italian Elisa Longo-borghin, has been particularly successful. She won it in 2016 while wearing the world champion’s jersey and has enjoyed a podium finish in all three editions she has raced.

This time around, because of coronavirus, she is determined to make the most of every treacherous climb and insidious descent of the 136 kilometre route.

“I swing between being positive and pessimistic,” Deignan says. “It’s wise to race every race as if it’s your last and I don’t want to take any schedule for granted. I don’t think any race is a given.”

For the world’s best female riders, however, there is an extra incentive to remain optimistic. When the UCI factored an inaugural Paris-roubaix women’s race for

Oct 25 into an already compact calendar, one did not anticipate the announcement to come in the throes of a global health crisis. “I never expected things like a surprise Paris-roubaix, that’s a massive move for women’s cycling and it’s really important,” she says. “It’s one of the most iconic races on the men’s calendar and one of the most watched, so if we can draw those fans from men’s cycling over to the women’s side, it would be a massive turning point for us.” The way in which women’s cycling has fared during the pandemic – considering how much of elite women’s sport has been sidelined – has, in fact, exceeded Deignan’s expectations.

“If anyone was going to suffer, you would have expected it to have been women’s cycling,” she says. “But it’s been a pleasant surprise how well women’s cycling has come out of the pandemic. I don’t feel like we’ve been a last resort at all.”

The UCI had initially intended to keep 18 of the 22 events in its revised version of the Women’s World Tour, although that number has since slipped to 14. Deignan insisted she felt safe while competing at two of three one-day races in the Basque Country last weekend, where more than a third of women’s teams were forced to drop out due to delays in coronavirus testing. “It’s a logistical nightmare for everybut the more we do it, the more we’ll get used to it.”