Going into the final stage of the Tour of Britain Women, the British National Team had Anna Henderson in second place overall and Lizzie Deignan wearing the blue QOM jersey. The day turned out to be rainier than expected, and Great Britain took the fight to SD Worx-Protime who had to work hard to defend Lotte Kopecky’s GC lead.
“It was incredible, Lizzie did such a good job, she really put SD Worx under pressure. That was really, really amazing, and then she just kept trying to set me up,” said a shivering Henderson after the stage.
“I could go away with the favourites each time, but I just couldn't get away solo to try to put that gap between me and Lotte, she was too strong today. She’s the champion she is, so really, chapeau to her for winning.”.
On Thursday’s stage 1, Deignan hadn’t planned to go for the blue jersey but simply went for the QOM points because she was in a good position. Holding a comfortable lead in that classification going into stage 4, she went for more points atop the Grains Bar climb – and when she had a gap over the top, the 35-year-old decided to keep going.
“Again, it was totally by accident. I came to the top of the first QOM and I just thought, ‘oh, well, let's just push on’. At least that put Anna in a nice position, and I was hoping maybe she'd jump on the [Ramsbottom] Rake with Kopecky, and we’d be able to play the numbers game,” Deignan explained.
Henderson and Kopecky were part of a group of four that got away on the Ramsbottom Rake, but they could not reach Deignan who continued on her own before being caught with 40km to go. In the final, the team tried to set up Henderson for an attack.
“I was trying to really make it as aggressive as possible, that was our best chance. I’m always somebody who wants to win the race, and our best chance for Anna to win the race was a hard race. I wasn't going to just give it to Kopecky on a plate,” said Deignan.
Even though they couldn’t topple Kopecky in the end, the national selection had a successful week. They put in strong team performance in support of Henderson and Deignan, as well as seeing Flora Perkins sprint to fifth and seventh place respectively on the last two stages.
“We've got a really strong group of women coming through. I was pleased to be able to help Flora in the sprint yesterday, she came fifth in a really strong group, and it was cool to see her fulfil her potential as well,” Deignan concluded.
