Lizzie Deignan (Trek Segafredo) made probably the most of a secondary plan as she and her teammates had been pressured to assault stage 1 of the RideLondon Basic after their sprinter, Elisa Balsamo, deserted the race.
Deignan completed third on the day behind winner Charlotte Kool (Crew DSM) and Clara Copponi (FDJ-SUEZ) on the uphill run to the road in Colchester. She sits third within the normal classification, eight seconds behind Kool.
Along with her third-place end, Deignan additionally secured her place as the perfect general British rider and pink jersey wearer in Britain’s solely remaining World Tour race.
Balsamo, a former World Champion, crashed twice within the first half of the 149.7km route that completed in Colchester earlier than stepping off the bike. Trek-Segafredo tweeted that she had ‘no critical accidents’ from the incidents.
“The plan originally of the day was to go for a dash with Elisa Balsamo, sadly, she crashed out, so I am simply pleased with the group that we made the perfect of a nasty state of affairs and acquired a podium place,” Deignan mentioned after returning to a World Tour podium for the primary time since her second maternity go away.
“Ina Teutenberg, our director, is superb from the automobile at ensuring everyone had that little second to take a breather as a result of it is laborious to listen to that your teammate has crashed out.
“She allowed us that point after which mentioned ‘Proper women, time to refocus and assault this race as a result of we do not have a sprinter anymore,’ so we needed to assault.”
Deignan first tried to get away solo however after that was stifled she hit the entrance once more with 29km to go and began drilling the tempo with Loretta Hanson (Trek Segafredo) which triggered the eventual race-defining cut up of 14 riders.
Sadly for Trek-Segafredo, the pre-race favorite, Kool had made it into the entrance group with key domestique and British star, Pfeiffer Georgi. They’d work to place off any additional assaults as they needed to maintain it collectively for Kool to dash.
Additionally they had Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM) disrupting their efforts as she tried to permit her teammates Maike van der Duin and Chloe Dygert to bridge the hole to the entrance following an unlucky crash close to some highway furnishings.
“There wasn’t as a lot collaboration as I might have favored. I perceive that everyone has their very own agenda in that group and naturally, most of these riders had a sprinter within the group,” mentioned Deignan.
The previous World Champion was delighted to be again preventing for the win nonetheless, the final of which for her got here on the inaugural Paris-Roubaix Femmes in 2021.
“I feel it’s worthwhile to be within the combine to attempt to win races as a result of it is all about emotions, not hesitating and happening the precise wheels which I do nonetheless really feel is lacking a bit. It was good to be going for a win as a result of I’ve not been in that place but [since returning],” mentioned Deignan.
“The extra I try this, the better they’ll get. It was cool to be there.”
Deignan has made good progress since her return, racing in each the Ardennes Classics and at La Vuelta Femenina and was completely satisfied to see her kind on a trajectory that she did not see coming so quickly.
“I did not anticipate to be on the rostrum, I assumed I used to be nonetheless a method off podiums,” Deignan mentioned.
“I have been working actually laborious and dealing laborious inside races and I do know that is one of the simplest ways to get health. I’ve loved being a teammate but additionally it is good to have my very own alternative right now.
“I felt actually robust and I had good legs right now so I hope I get up with the identical ones tomorrow.”
Deignan mentioned in a pre-race press convention that tomorrow’s stage in Maldon most likely fits her the perfect and can be the perfect probability for a breakaway, so anticipate to see her and her teammates again on the assault once more. Stage 2 is 137.1km lengthy and is best fitted to the punchier climbers with three laps of a 22km circuit that accommodates North Hill earlier than one other uphill run the road.
When requested how she and her teammates would method the parcours with Balsamo now out Deignan replied: “With nothing to lose.”