Being a parent has given the Yorkshire rider perspective, but with the world road race passing her parents’ house she is determined to put up a stern fight in her own backyard
When her rivals line up in Bradford next Saturday for the UCI world road race, Lizzie Deignan can be confident that none know the course like she does.
Every lump in the road, every tricky corner, every narrow bridge: she’s navigated them all, countless times. “I’ve ridden the route so many times just by accident, before it was even announced as the women’s road race,” she said this week. “Hundreds. Thousands. Every time I wheeled my bike out of my parents’ garage I turned right and I was on the worlds circuit.”