Lizzie Deignan ‘emotional' as she prepares for final race in Britain
An emotional Lizzie Deignan will end her years racing on home roads with a farewell appearance in the four-day Tour of Britain, which begins in Dalby Forest. 'I'm really pleased that the race starts in Yorkshire and finishes in Glasgow, because I've got amazing memories of my career there,' she said. 'I'm really excited about it.'
The 36-year-old retires at the end of this season and described herself as 'incredibly emotional' over coming to the end of a career that included an Olympic silver medal at London 2012 and a Commonwealth Games gold medal in Glasgow in 2014, as well as victory in the first women's Paris-Roubaix and the world road race title in 2015.
'I realise how privileged I have been to do this for a career,' she said. 'I just feel lucky it's my choice that it's my last time, because not every athlete gets to do that. I know it's my last one going into every race this year, and I feel like I can make the most of it. It's really liberating.'
Even with a British Grand Départ to the Tour de France Femmes confirmed for 2027, Deignan said she had 'definitely made the right decision' to quit the sport. Deignan, now with the Lidl-Trek team, has been a trailblazer as an elite endurance athlete who has juggled parenting and racing at the highest level, as well as being as an influential figure in the rapid growth of women's cycling.
'Half of the races that I've won weren't even on the calendar when I first started,' she said. 'I've grown up alongside the sport. When I started, everyone was racing just for passion.'
If there is a natural heir to Deignan, it may be the 19-year-old Cat Ferguson, who is making her debut in the Tour of Britain, riding for Movistar. She was the revelation of last year's UCI World Road Championships, winning the junior time trial and road race.
'Cat's definitely got an amazing future,' Deignan said, 'and she is stepping into what is now a really professional sport. She has so many amazing opportunities and she will experience such a different level of professionalism compared to what we had. It's really exciting to see this next generation of British female riders.'
Ferguson's first season racing at World Tour level has had its ups and downs, including a solid performance in her debut Grand Tour, the women's Vuelta, but also a heavy fall caused by a wandering spectator during April's Paris-Roubaix.
'That was my race over,' Ferguson said. 'There's been a lot of bad luck, alongside the good things. That's the reality of racing in the World Tour. Not every race goes your way and when it does go wrong, it's a lot harder to come back from.'
Ferguson will be one of the headline names of a peloton that includes the Olympic road race champion, Kristen Faulkner, racing for EF Education-Oatly, and Anna Henderson, silver medallist in the time trial at the Paris Olympics and teammate to Deignan at Lidl-Trek. 'Out of all the races I've done this year, I'm really excited for this one,' Ferguson said. 'This a really competitive field and doing well is definitely one of my goals.'
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If Sunday's circuit race in Glasgow will remind Deignan of her 2014 Commonwealth Games success, the opening couple of stages, from Dalby Forest to Redcar and Hartlepool to Saltburn-by-the-Sea, are more familiar to the Otley-born rider than some of her rivals. 'I know what to expect in terms of the conditions, and from British soggy, slow roads,' she said. 'I think I'll be at a bit of an advantage to some, although they're not quite my 'home' roads.'
Rod Ellingworth, now in his second year as race director to the Tours of Britain, revealed that a different finish to the race to celebrate Deignan's career, had been under consideration.
'There were a few different ideas,' he said. 'Could we finish in Yorkshire for Lizzie?, for example. But you get a city like Glasgow coming in and they want it as a Festival of Cycling, so then, it's 'OK, this is the obvious choice.''
'Ideally, you want to get to a point where you're not relying on local authority money, so then you can go to the right locations to run the race you want to, but unfortunately it's not as simple as that.'
The race will be streamed live on BBC iPlayer and on TNT Sports.
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