Going into the ultimate stage of the Tour of Britain Women, the British National Team had Anna Henderson in second place general and Lizzie Deignan carrying the blue QOM jersey. The day turned out to be rainier than anticipated, and Great Britain took the combat to SD Worx-Protime who needed to work laborious to defend Lotte Kopecky’s GC lead.
“It was unbelievable, Lizzie did such an excellent job, she actually put SD Worx beneath stress. That was actually, actually wonderful, after which she simply stored making an attempt to set me up,” mentioned a shivering Henderson after the stage.
“I might go away with the favourites every time, however I simply could not get away solo to attempt to put that hole between me and Lotte, she was too sturdy as we speak. She’s the champion she is, so actually, chapeau to her for profitable.”.
On Thursday’s stage 1, Deignan hadn’t deliberate to go for the blue jersey however merely went for the QOM factors as a result of she was in an excellent place. Holding a cushty lead in that classification going into stage 4, she went for extra factors atop the Grains Bar climb – and when she had a niche excessive, the 35-year-old determined to maintain going.
“Again, it was completely accidentally. I got here to the highest of the primary QOM and I simply thought, ‘oh, effectively, let’s simply push on’. At least that put Anna in a pleasant place, and I hoped perhaps she’d bounce on the [Ramsbottom] Rake with Kopecky, and we’d be capable of play the numbers recreation,” Deignan defined.
Henderson and Kopecky have been a part of a bunch of 4 that bought away on the Ramsbottom Rake, however they might not attain Deignan who continued on her personal earlier than being caught with 40km to go. In the ultimate, the group tried to arrange Henderson for an assault.
“I used to be making an attempt to essentially make it as aggressive as potential, that was our greatest probability. I’m at all times any person who needs to win the race, and our greatest probability for Anna to win the race was a tough race. I wasn’t going to simply give it to Kopecky on a plate,” mentioned Deignan.
Even although they couldn’t topple Kopecky ultimately, the nationwide choice had a profitable week. They put in sturdy group efficiency in assist of Henderson and Deignan, in addition to seeing Flora Perkins dash to fifth and seventh place respectively on the final two levels.
“We’ve bought a extremely sturdy group of girls coming by. I used to be happy to have the ability to assist Flora within the dash yesterday, she got here fifth in a extremely sturdy group, and it was cool to see her fulfil her potential as effectively,” Deignan concluded.
