Elizabeth Deignan (née Armitstead) attracted attention early on with her successes on the track. Deignan was also a front runner in the U23 class at the European Track Championships and won gold in the elite team pursuit in 2009. In the 2011 season, the young Deignan became British road champion for the first time and repeated this success in 2013 and 2015. Just one year later, in 2012, the Englishwoman won the Omloop van het Hageland and the first edition of the Gent-Wevelgem race.
After moving to Team Boels - Dolmans Cycling Team, Deignan won the UCI Road World Cup in 2014 and 2015, the overall classification of the most important races in women's cycling at the time. She repeated her victory at the Omloop van het Hageland in 2014 and was crowned world champion on the road in 2015. Deignan became a classics specialist in the spring of the 2016 season, when she won the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the Strade Bianche, the Trofeo Alfredo Binda and the Tour of Flanders in the space of just under a month.
Major classic victories
Elizabeth Deignan did not race in 2018 due to her pregnancy and subsequently switched to Team Trek-Segafredo Women (later Lidl - Trek). In addition to her victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2020, Elizabeth Deignan entered the history books a year later as the winner of the first edition of Paris-Roubaix. The second pregnancy break followed in 2022. Deignan then returned for three seasons - however, she was unable to claim a single victory.
Leon Weidner
Working student
