Deignan not guaranteed to spearhead GB’s road race team at Paris 2024, says Olympic gold medallist Rowsell
By Milly McEvoy
Olympic silver medallist Lizzie Deignan is not guaranteed to be Team GB’s road race team leader at Paris 2024, says former Olympic champion Jo Rowsell.
Otley’s Deignan won silver for Great Britain at London 2012 and has been a mainstay of the women’s road cycling world ever since.
However, she will face stiff competition from youngster Pfeiffer George to be the rider whom the British race plan is based around as the aim for gold.
“I don’t know if she will be the team leader for Team GB because we’ve got young talent as well,” Rowsell, who'll be working with Eurosport and discovery+ for their Olympics cycling coverage, said.
“But we’ve got a super strong team of four riders.
“For the GB team for the women’s road race, we’ve got Pfeiffer Georgi the national champion.
“That was a really interesting race a couple of weeks ago and a real head-to-head between Pfeiffer and Lizzie, and Pfeiffer won up quite a significant hill at the end.
“It really depends how the race unfolds and who they decide to work for.”
Deignan won the 2015 World Championships on the road, also claiming the Paris Roubaix title in 2021 to show her one-day race pedigree.
However, she has not been on a global podium since that win in 2015 and Rowsell believes there could be a shock result like there was in Tokyo 2020.
She added: “It is a really difficult race to control, they need to read the race tactics.
“It is hard to go into the race with a plan because you need to respond to the race going on around you, nobody is going to have a big enough team to dictate the race.
“In Tokyo, we had Anna Kiesenhofer go off and win solo and she was to most people an unknown rider.
“The Olympic road race is a race where anything can happen so it will be about being adaptable and reactive and being open with each other and saying ‘I haven’t got the legs today’ and see who they can work for in the end.”
Rowsell was also on the podium at London 2012, winning team pursuit gold on the track before defending her title four years later.
She has since transitioned into punditry, and has seen first-hand how much women’s road cycling has grown and Deignan’s contribution to that.
“Lizzie Deignan was our first Olympic medallist at the London 2012,” Rowsell added. “She was Lizzie Armistead back then, and she got a silver medal racing down the Mall at just 23 years old, she was really young.
“This is now going to be her fourth Olympic Games, her career has spanned a time in which women’s cycling has really changed.
“Back in 2012, most professional women’s road cyclists weren’t getting paid a salary, the races weren’t televised apart from the Olympics and World Championships once a year, there was really little opportunity for the sport to be showcased.
“It has now changed completely, we now have a women’s Tour de France which is an annual event, we have got TV coverage of all the biggest races and Lizzie has been part of that.
“She became a high profile name at London 2012 and now the rest of the sport is raising its game. I think she is really loving her cycling now.”
Watch every moment of Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics.
