A County Expects

Lizzie Deignan tells Owen Rogers about her plans for reclaiming the world road race title on home turf

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Five days before the women’s World Championship road race, Orla Deignan will celebrate her first birthday, but there will be no party. Her mum, the 2015 champion Lizzie, has her eyes on a different celebration.

“The birthday party can wait — she doesn’t know it’s her birthday does she? She’ll have an abundance of birthday parties when she knows what’s going on,” Deignan argues, with convincing logic.

And after all, Orla’s mother has a unique opportunity to achieve greatness in the sport. Few ever have the opportunity to win one World Championship, but when the chance to win a second comes on a route which suits their skills and is on home ground, surely no one would let a birthday party distract them.

The start is little more than 10 miles from where Deignan grew up and discovered the sport, and the course holds no mystery for her.

“By accident I’ve ridden the route hundreds, thousands of times,” she tells us. “Every time I went out on the bike I turned right and I was out on the route. And when I stayed in the UK in the spring, I rode the finishing circuit probably 10 or 12 times.”

With that familiarity though comes a certain level of pressure, the weight of expectation. There will be precious few excuses to be had if she doesn’t manage to convert such favourable circumstances into victory. On top of that, the local cycling community’s excitement is reaching fever pitch.