OVO Energy Women's Tour: Lizzie Deignan secures overall success

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Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) secured overall victory in the OVO Energy Women's Tour after a tense final stage to Pembrey Country Park.

Going into the final stage with a one-second lead over Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Deignan doubled her advantage by taking a bonus second at an intermediate sprint.

In the sprint finish won by Amy Pieters (Boels-Dolmans) ahead of Leah Kirchmann (Team Sunweb) and Roxane Fournier (Movistar Team), Deignan placed eighth, sealing her second Women's Tour overall victory.

“I won through grit and determination,” Deignan said after the finish. “I’m away from my daughter for a reason, I’m here to do a job. I have a fantastic team around me that I don’t want to let down. You’ve always got to dig in.”

How it happened

The final stage over 125.9 km from Carmarthen to Pembrey Country Park included two classified climbs, the third-category Bethlehem Hill and the eight-kilometre, first-category Black Mountain, as well as several other uncategorised climbs. Two intermediate sprints in Talley and Penygroes offered bonus seconds that could become crucial in the general classification.

Susanne Andersen (Team Sunweb) was the first to break away, but she was caught again within the first ten kilometres. A few minutes later, a group of eleven riders got a gap on the peloton, forming the break of the day.

Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb), Anna Christian (Drops), Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott), Chantal Blaak (Boels-Dolmans), Romy Kasper (Alé Cipollini), Hannah Barnes (Canyon-SRAM), Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo), Leah Thomas (Bigla), Pauliena Rooijakkers (CCC-Liv), Eugénie Duval (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), and Janneke Ensing (WNT-Rotor) increased their advantage to two minutes, and Rivera placed second in the first intermediate sprint of the day to secure her red sprint jersey.

20 km later, Rivera went solo for a short while after attacking on Bethlehem Hill, but the break started the ascent of Black Mountain together, 57 seconds ahead of the peloton. Barnes, Van Dijk, Thomas, Ensing, and Rivera emerged as the strongest on the climb, cresting the top 16 seconds ahead of the first chasers and 1:52 minutes ahead of the peloton.

Blaak and Brown bridged to the front on the descent, and the seven leaders were 1:31 minutes ahead at the 50-kilometre mark. The peloton made chase ahead of the second intermediate sprint with 34 km to go, catching the break five kilometres before Penygroes.

Trek-Segafredo and Canyon-SRAM led out their leaders, but it was Kirchmann who was first over the line, taking three bonus seconds ahead of Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans). Deignan was third to snatch the last remaining bonus second, extending her GC lead over Niewiadoma to two seconds.

Not long after, the attacks started again as many riders weren’t content to wait for a sprint finish. None of the attacks had any luck in establishing a significant gap until Nadia Quagliotto (Alé Cipollini) went with 14 km to go. As Trek-Segafredo were happy to leave Quagliotto ahead and take time bonifications at the finish, the Italian took a 30-second lead onto the final ten kilometres.

Grace Brown bridged to her, and together they held onto a small advantage before being caught just inside Pembrey Country Park, two kilometres from the finish. Majerus led out her teammate Pieters onto the finishing straight, and Pieters took the third stage victory in six days for Boels-Dolmans, beating Kirchmann and Fournier to the line.

In addition to the overall victory, Deignan also wins the pink points jersey and the light-blue jersey for the best British rider. Niewiadoma wins the QOM classification, Thomas was awarded the prize of most combative rider on stage 6, and Sarah Roy (Mitchelton-Scott) won the overall combativity award. Trek-Segafredo won the team classification.

Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) continues to lead the UCI Women’s WorldTour ranking despite not racing the OVO Energy Women’s Tour, but her advantage over Niewiadoma has shrunk to only 33 points. Marta Cavalli (Valcar Cylance) was the best U23 rider at the Women’s Tour, further extending her lead in the UCI Women’s WorldTour U23 classification.

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