Lizzie Deignan will take on the elite women’s road race today at the Road World Championships in her home county of Yorkshire, hoping to spring a surprise and win her second world title.
Deignan won in Virginia in 2015 but comes into this race in very different circumstances, having giving birth a year ago to daughter Orla. Since then she has made an impressive return to the sport, winning The Women’s Tour in June, but her ultimate goal has always been to triumph her on the roads she knows better than anyone, and on a course which passes her parents’ back garden.
To win she will need to over the strengths of the Dutch team which contains her old rival Anna van der Breggen and the brilliant Marianne Vos. Follow it live:
14km to go: This is so impressive by Anna van Vleuten. She is holding off Chloe Dygert's pursuit and there doesn't seem to be anything that can stop her now from winning this world title. An awesome performance in every sense.
20km to go
Van Vleuten leads Dygert by exactly two minutes...
27km to go: It looks like we have two separate races now. One for the gold medal and the world title, between the race leader Annemiek van Vleuten (Netherlands) and her nearest chaser Chloe Dygert (USA), who is still 2min 18sec behind and doesn't seem to be making many inroads. Behind them is a trio chasing bronze: Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands), Amanda Spratt (Australia) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy). Yorkshire's very own Lizzie Deignan is back in sixth place and looking unlikely to reattach herself to this group.
33km to go: Chloe Dygert has attacked once more and she's finally escaped from the other three. The American is now going to try and time-trial her way across to Van Vleuten, who is still way out in front.
35km to go: So all that action has reduced Van Vleuten's advantage to two minutes. There's a chasing group of only four now:
Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), Chloe Dygert (USA), Amanda Spratt (Australia).
Lizzie Deignan looks to have been finally left behind.
Chloe Dygert attacks again! Amazing effort from the young American. This is a such a strong group but the rest are struggling to keep up with the world time-trial champion.
37km to go: Chloe Dygert attacks! She pulls a little gap from the rest of the chasers, but Anna van der Breggen battles back and reels her in. However in all the chaos, Lizzie Deignan has been cut adrift! Can she find a way back?
40km to go: Van Vleuten reaches Harrogate for three laps of the final circuit with a two-minute lead. And it doesn't seem to be reducing at all. Deignan must be so frustrated in this chase group.
49km to go: Deignan and Borghini attack! The two are Trek-Segafredo team-mates and they are working together here despite wearing their national colours. Next the time trial champion American Chloe Dygert fires forwards, but still the group stays as one. This is not ideal for Deignan, stuck in this group which isn't working together as Van Vleuten continues to extend her lead. It's up towards two minutes, now.
52km to go: Behind Van Vleuten, Lizzie Deignan decides she's had enough. She doesn't want to let the Dutch rider escape any further up the road and she blasts forward from the chase pack. They stick with her, though. The spoiler in there is Anna van der Breggen who can obviously assist her team-mate by disrupting the chasers a little.
55km to go: Not much has changed for a while. This elite women's road race is a rhythm now, with Ammemiek van Vleuten tapping out a hard pace all alone on the front with a lead of now a minute and a half. This a serious bid to go all the way,
67km to go: Van Vleuten's lead dropped briefly to around 40 seconds and it seemed like perhaps she was fading, but she's taken off her jacket and now she's accelerating away again. She now leads the chase pack of eight riders, which includes Deignan and Van der Breggen by more than a minute.
The whole of Yorkshire gripped by this one..
75km to go: Lizzie Deignan is looking around to find where her team car is, and finally she's found it. They are giving her a little information on timings, plus a couple of gels to store, and she's on her way. Still about a minute between Deignan's group and Van Vleuten, out on her own, but this is going to have to be one of the most incredible solo efforts of all time if the Dutch rider is to make it stick.
Here was the moment earlier in the day when Lizzie Deignan went through Otley, her home town, at the front of the race:
85km to go: Van Vleuten has a lead of around a minute to the first chasing group, containing Deigan and defending champion Van der Breggen. The peloton is already about three minutes back so it looks like this is the race...
A few nice pictures from the day's racing so far:
A nice touch earlier in the day as the peloton reached Otley, where they parted to let Lizzie Deignan take to the front as she rode through her home town. What a special moment that must have been for the 2015 world champion.
100km to go: The action is suddenly kicking off here as the road climbs up on to the exposed moors. First Annemiek van Vleuten attacked, driving off into the distance with a rate of climbing pace that no one could match. A strong group gave chase, including Yorkshire's Lizzie Deignan, who threw in her own sharp attack a moment ago to shred the chase group from around 12 to only a handful. This race flattens a little in the second half so these early stages are the only moments to attack on the climbs, and there are few better than Van Vleuten to do.
First up, here's our interview with the 2015 world champion hoping to do it again on home turf (almost literally, seeing as this course runs past her parents' back garden), Lizzie Deignan:
Here is everything you need to know.
What time does it start?
The race begins at around 11.30pm, and should be wrapped up shortly after 4pm.
Prediction?
Vos has been in such scintillating form this season and won the Tour de Yorkshire in May. She will be too strong for the rest. But as yesterday’s drama showed, almost anything can happen.
What are the road closures around Yorkshire?
| Location | Race arrival | Road closure |
|---|---|---|
| Bradford | 11:40am | 5am to 2pm |
| Shipley | 11:55am | 11:20am to 12:30pm |
| Menston | 12:01pm to 12:02pm | 11:20am to 12:30pm |
| Otley | 12:06pm to 12:08pm | 11:30am to 12:30pm |
| Farnley | 12:11pm to 12:13pm | 11:30am to 12:30pm |
| Norwood Edge Summit | 12:17pm to 12:20pm | 11:40am to 12:40pm |
| Menwith Hill | 12:26pm to 12:32pm | 12pm to 1pm |
| Summerbridge | 12:34pm to 12:40pm | 12:10pm to 1:10pm |
| Pateley Bridge | 12:42pm to 12:50pm | 12:10pm to 1:20pm |
| Lofthouse Summit | 1:04pm to 1:14pm | 11am to 3pm |
| Fearby | 1:21pm to 1:35pm | 12:50pm to 2pm |
| Masham | 1:22pm to 1:36pm | 12:50pm to 2pm |
| West Tanfield | 1:31pm to 1:47pm | 1pm to 2:10pm |
| North Stainley | 1:35pm to 1:52pm | 1pm to 2:30pm |
| North Lees | 1:40pm to 1:58pm | 1pm to 2:30pm |
| Ripon | 1:44pm to 2:02pm | 1:15pm to 2:30pm |
| Sawley | 2:02pm to 2:24pm | 1:30pm to 2:45pm |
| Bishop Thornton | 2:04pm to 2:25pm | 1:30 to 3pm |
| Shaw Mills | 2:05pm to 2:27pm | 1:30pm to 3pm |
| Birstwith | 2:12pm to 2:35pm | 1:40pm to 3pm |
| Hampsthwaite | 2:16pm to 2:29pm | 1:40pm to 3pm |
| A59 Skipton Road | 2:23pm to 2:47pm | 1:50pm to 3:10pm |
| New Park | 2:25pm to 2:50pm | 1:50pm to 3:10pm |
| Ripon Road sector | 12noon to 5:10pm | |
| Harrogate Circuit 1 | 2:29pm to 2:54pm | 12noon to 5:10pm |
| Harrogate Circuit 2 | 2:48pm to 3:17pm | 12noon to 5:10pm |
| Harrogate Circuit 3 | 3:08pm to 3:50pm | 12noon to 5:10pm |
Join us here later for live updates from the race.
