Ahead of the 2019 season, the comeback of Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) was very anticipated. Opinions differed on whether Deignan could return to the highest level after sitting out 2018 due to pregnancy and signing for the new Trek-Segafredo team. When she returned to racing at the Ardennes classics, Deignan performed well right away, being at the front end of the races and finishing seventh in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. She continued to show her good form at the Tour de Yorkshire and Tour of California. At the OVO Energy Women’s Tour, Deignan has truly returned to the very top, winning the mountainous queen stage through Mid Wales on Friday and taking the overall lead before the final stage, one second ahead of Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM). The last time Deignan stood on the top step of the podium was in late August 2017 when she won the GP Plouay one-day race. The victory in Builth Wells was the first after 657 days.ADVERTISEMENT “It was very emotional,” said Deignan after the race. “It’s been a tough comeback. After becoming a mom, finding my feet again in cycling has been difficult. There have always been questions whether I made the right decision, today was massive validation that I did. I can’t quite really describe it; it was probably the nicest win I’ve had in a very long time. I really savoured it and really enjoyed it and I will do for a long time.” Deignan went on the attack with her teammate Elisa Longo Borghini on the steep Epynt climb 20 km from the finish, and they were joined by Niewiadoma. “It was instinctive. It wasn’t the plan, but I kept looking over at Elisa and noticed she was looking back at me. I just thought, ‘go on then, we’ll give it a try’. I went and Kasia took over then. Her takeover was much stronger than my initial attack and I kind of survived with them over the top. Then we worked together to the finish.”
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