Deignan dominates game of seconds to win the OVO Energy Women’s Tour
16 June 2019 09:40
The final stage of the OVO Energy Women’s Tour turned into a game of seconds not only to decide Lizzie Deignan’s eventual overall victory but fore the placings further down the general classification. During a tense ride in the south of Wales, Deignan and Trek-Segafredo defended her green jersey against Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) by taking a bonus second at the second intermediate sprint in Penygroes. Leah Kirchmann (Team Sunweb) and Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans) crossed the sprint line ahead of Deignan, both improving their overall positions in doing so but Deignan opened a precious two-gap on Niewiadoma. It is perhaps ironic that the sixth edition of the Women’s Tour included a hilltop finish and a true mountainous queen stage but ended with the smallest time gap between first and second place.ADVERTISEMENT “It was hectic all day long, you couldn’t lose focus,” Deignan admitted. “My main concern was Black Mountain, we were hoping the breakaway would stay away through the intermediate sprint. The second sprint was on a climb, so we didn’t really want to go for it. But Canyon-SRAM did a great job of bringing that back, and it was kind of like, ‘right, I’m going to have to sprint’. Kasia took me all the way to the line, she really fought all day long. But once I had that second and were up two seconds, it was a good position for us.” But even with a two-second advantage, victory wasn’t in the bag for Deignan. The finish at Pembrey Country Park was a technical affair with several corners in the final kilometres. A fight for the top five
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