Lizzie Deignan’s defence of her world road title ended in a creditable fourth, just a few metres from a medal, but the Yorkshirewoman had the consolation of seeing her Boels–Dolmans team-mate Amalie Dideriksen take the rainbow jersey. Deignan was among the first to congratulate the 20-year-old Dane after they crossed the line in Doha.
Like Dideriksen and the bronze medallist, Lotta Lepistö of Finland, Deignan was left without team-mates in the final kilometre – although a strong Great Britain squad marshalled by Dani King had ridden perfectly until then – and had no option but to fight for the wheel of the race favourite, Kirsten Wild, whose six team-mates controlled the final kilometres to perfection.
“I really loved it, what a great team, they put it all on the line,” said Deignan “We worked well and going forward that’s something I feel very positive about. Looking forward to Norway [in 2017] for instance, we can go there in a group of women who can really pull together and that’s an exciting prospect.”
“I knew the Dutch girls would make the lead-out for Kirsten Wild, I wanted her wheel so badly, I fought hard to get on it,” said Dideriksen, who was the junior world champion in 2013 and 2014, and – like Deignan – had built her season around the Olympic Games in Rio, where she finished fifth in the omnium behind Laura Trott.
It was to prove the key battle of the 134.5-kilometre race. Starting the sprint in Wild’s slipstream enabled the Dane to time her effort to perfection, coming past Wild’s left in the final 25 metres to snatch victory by half a wheel as Lepistö made her own effort further to the left.
“I felt that it was early [to sprint] but I couldn’t leave it any longer,” said a disappointed Wild, who will have few better chances of winning the rainbow jersey. The winner of the bunch sprints that decided this season’s Tour de Yorkshire and the Ride London Classique, she had the support of the strongest team in the race, with the Dutch initially attempting attack after attack to split the field or at least make life tough in the heat, then eventually
opting to control the race in the final stages.
Deignan had to scrap for every inch of road along with Lepistö and the fifth-placed Marta Bastianelli in the final 500 metres and was left with too much ground to make up in the final metres. In those circumstances, on a course that did not suit her, in a race that she had not prepared specifically for, fourth place was a more than respectable way to wave goodbye to a rainbow jersey and a turbulent season.
As the Dutch flung riders up the road one after the other – the evergreen Marianne Vos and Anna van der Breggen, the Olympic road race champion, were particularly active – the other teams including Great Britain held a watching brief, with King, Eileen Roe and Hannah Barnes all prominent alongside Deignan, whose ability to hold position near the front without seeming to make an effort spoke volumes for her form and confidence.
King escaped briefly with Vos at 50km to go, but no other nations were willing to join the Dutch in attacking until, with just under three laps of the 15km circuit remaining, Amber Neben of the US took advantage of a brief lull. Having won the time trial title on Tuesday, the 41-year-old had a chance of making it to the finish solo if she was given any space and it fell to the Dutch and Australians to keep her within reach, albeit without committing in full strength.
Neben’s advantage never topped a minute and she was swept up just after the bell, leaving what remained of the field – 60 riders – together for a final run through the plethora of roundabouts and dead turns of the Pearl Circuit. King was the first to break, putting in a searing attack out of the feed zone a kilometre after the finish line, briefly prompting a split of 10 riders before the field came back together.
King put in one final effort to move Deignan into pole position just behind the Dutch before the last tricky dead turn at three kilometres and it paid off. The British leader was perfectly placed until the final round of jostling and barging in the last 500 metres that left Dideriksen poised to pip Wild for the biggest title of her career.
No comments:
Post a Comment