DEIGNAN: KILLER

Lizzie Deignan isn’t the most prolific winner of women’s races. She’s had 43 victories, exactly half the total of Annemiek van Vleuten and less than a quarter of Marianne Vos. However, what the Brit can do is target single big races and win them. She rarely wins a race multiple times, but she’s won the following races: the Worlds, Liège, Flanders, Trofeo Binda, Omloop, Strade Bianche, Drenthe, Wevelgem, Plouay and the Women’s Tour.

So it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Deignan was the winner of the inaugural Paris-Roubaix Femmes at the end of 2021. She took advantage of her strong team by going away alone with 80km to go and ploughed on ahead while her rivals hesitated to pull her team-mates up to the front.

More importantly, the spectacular win made the race an instant classic, creating history by giving the women’s peloton another step towards parity with the men. It’s apt that such a big occasion was won by a rider who specialises in being a big race winner.