Road worlds: GB's Lizzie Deignan sprints to fourth place in elite women's race

Road worlds: GB's Lizzie Deignan sprints to fourth place in elite women's race

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Lizzie Deignan sprinted to fourth place in the elite women’s race after a superb performance from the Great Britain Cycling Team at the UCI Road World Championships.

2015 champion Deignan took up a good position in the final kilometre on the back of the Netherlands team’s lead-out train for Kirsten Wild, after GB had worked tirelessly through the race.

And a strong sprint saw the Olympic silver medallist just miss out on the podium in Doha, Qatar as Denmark’s Amalie Dideriksen edged out Dutch favourite Wild on the line to win the rainbow jersey.

“In the finish straight I was just legless. I didn’t have energy to kick,” said Deignan, whose main focus of the season was the Rio Olympic Games.  

“If I had prepared for this I may have done some sprint training and put myself in a position to win but a deserved champion.

Deignan also praised her teammates after an excellent display.

“I loved it, what a great team. What a great atmosphere. They put it all on the line and we worked really well as a team and going forward that’s something that I feel really positive about.”    

The eight-strong British team of Eileen Roe, Laura Massey, Abby-Mae Parkinson, Annasley Park, Hannah Barnes, Dani King, Alice Barnes and Deignan had delivered a tactically astute race over the 134.5km .

King was a near ever-present on the front of the race over the opening stages as Britain marked any potential dangerous moves on the flat course.

An early attack from Eri Yonamine was allowed to go but it was in the final 50km, on the seven laps of the Pearl Qatar circuit, when the race came to life.

Repeated attacks from a Netherlands squad that included Marianne Vos and Olympic champion Anna van der Bruggen were answered by GB’s Barnes, King, Park and Roe.  

World time trial champion Amber Neben then attacked alone and built up a gap of 45 seconds, but it was never in danger of distancing the peloton and by the last lap the race was together once more.

There was still time for King to launch an attack that stretched the reduced bunch, before the London 2012 team pursuit champion brought Deignan to the front to contest the sprint finale.

Result

Elite women

Gallery

2016 UCI Road World Championships - elite women's road race