Philippa York: Lizzie Deignan defines her own identity

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Lizzie Deignan of Team Trek-Segafredo in action near Harrogate. (Image credit: SWpix.com)

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Elizabeth Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) won the most active rider jersey (Image credit: SWpix.com)

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Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) (Image credit: Trek-Segafredo)

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Lizzie Deignan of Team Trek-Segafredo and her daughter Orla. (Image credit: SWpix.com)

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Elizabeth Deignan returned to racing from maternity leave (Image credit: Getty Images)

Catching up with Lizzie Deignan the evening before the first stage of the Women’s Tour de Yorkshire and I was struck by just how relaxed and level headed she is. She’s three races into her return from giving birth last September, so I was thinking that maybe there would have been some lingering apprehension at being back in the thick of things, but not at all. Any doubts she had over nerves or if her ability to deal with the stresses of racing in a peloton were, she says, gone after the first 100 metres of Amstel Gold Race.