Lizzie Deignan wins Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes

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Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) has won Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes. Part of a nine-rider front group that went clear with over 50km to go, Deignan went clear on the Côte de La Redoute 30km from the finish, opening a gap of almost a minute.

On the last climb, the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott) dropped the rest of the group to chase Deignan, but she never came closer than 10 seconds and ultimately finished in second place. Deignan's teammate Ellen van Dijk anticipated the sprint to take third place.

“I think the nicest thing about this team is that we are allowed to race on instinct and not to fear failure”, explained Deignan after the race. “I thought, I need to be over La Redoute before Anna [van der Breggen] and Annemiek [van Vleuten] and Elisa [Longo Borghini]. So I just raced on instinct.”

Reflecting on the final where Brown came closer and closer, Deignan said: “It was really horrible. In the end, I decided to try to chase the motorbikes in front of me rather than think about her behind me, because mentally it is just cracking you when you think like that. I knew that she would descend faster than me, so I was just praying the line would come quicker.”

How it unfolded

It was an early morning start for the women’s peloton in Bastogne. They rolled out on the 135km course to Liège in the cold and rain, though the rain stopped during the race and the sun came out eventually.

Helped by a strong tailwind, the pace was very high, and there was no breakaway for a long time until a group of eight riders went clear shortly before the Côte de la Vecquée. Amy Pieters (Boels Dolmans), Juliette Labous (Team Sunweb), Hannah Barnes (Canyon-SRAM), Deignan, Van Dijk, Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv), Katrine Aalerud (Movistar Team) and Marlen Reusser (Équipe Paule Ka) quickly gained a one-minute advantage, and Brown bridged to the front on the Vecquée climb.

These nine riders entered the Côte de La Redoute 1:30 minutes ahead of the peloton. Halfway up, Deignan accelerated and dropped the rest of the group, cresting the top solo about 30 seconds ahead.

Further behind, Demi Vollering (Parkhotel Valkenburg) set the pace and made several attacks to fracture the peloton. Only Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), Liane Lippert (Team Sunweb), and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) able to follow Vollering all the way to the top, though more riders joined from behind in the following kilometres.

20km from the finish, Deignan was almost a minute ahead of the first chase group where there was no real cooperation and Van Dijk chased down any attacks. 2:20 minutes behind the leader, Uttrup Ludwig was driving the second chase group of about 20 riders.

On the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, Brown attacked from the chase group to go after Deignan on her own. The 28-year-old Australian was 32 second behind at the top of the climb and threw herself into the descent into Liège. She had Deignan in sight several times on the twisty run-in but could not close the gap completely, finishing as runner-up nine seconds behind Deignan who could celebrate her third one-day race victory of the season and resume the lead of the UCI Women’s WorldTour.