Lizzie Deignan solos to Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes triumph

Brit Lizzie Deignan of Trek-Segafredo won Sunday’s fourth edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes with a solo attack on the penultimate climb, becoming the first non-Dutch rider to triumph. With the victory–her third in seven rounds of the 2020 WorldTour–Deignan retakes the series lead from Anna van der Breggen. The top Canadian was Alison Jackson in 39th.

#LBLWomen @lizziedeignan takes a monumental victory! What a ride! pic.twitter.com/2ClG7XYyOK

— Trek-Segafredo (@TrekSegafredo) October 4, 2020

The Course

The women had six climbs over 136.5-km to race. The two final climbs would be the toughest: the Côte de La Redoute (1.9 km of 8.9 percent) peaking 30 km from the finish, and the Côte de Roche-aux-Faucons ((1.1 km of 7.8 percent) cresting 15 km from the finish in Liege. It was a cool, rainy day.

Deignan was in a nine-rider group including her teammate Ellen van Dijk and Marianne Vos that went clear with over 50 km to go. Deignan then powered away on the Côte de La Redoute, forcing a gap of almost a minute.

?30 km to go: @lizziedeignan attacks on La Redoute! Is that the winning move for @TrekSegafredo? #UCIWWT #LBLwomen pic.twitter.com/b4sYSQm3hv

— UCI_WWT (@UCI_WWT) October 4, 2020

On the Côte de Roche-aux-Faucons, Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott) lit out after Deignan, and it was real edge-of-the-seat stuff in the race’s climax as Brown drew closer and closer. In the end the Brit won by nine seconds.

Van Dijk outsprinted Marianne Vos and Amy Pieters to stand on the podium with her winning teammate.

There are five rounds left in the 2020 Women’s WorldTour.

2020 Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes
1) Lizzie Deignan (Great Britain/Trek-Segafredo) 3:29:48
2) Grace Brown (Australia/Mitchelton-Scott) +0:09
3) Ellen van Dijk (The Netherlands/Trek-Segafredo) +2:19
39) Alison Jackson (Canada/Sunweb) +5:52
41) Leah Kirchmann (Canada/Sunweb) +8:39