After the Tour de Yorkshire announced their home world champion would be returning to race this year, Trek Segafredo and Lizzie Deignan have confirmed her race programme will be starting at Amstel Gold in just under two weeks time.
Deignan, who gave birth to baby daughter Orla in September 2018 and has not raced for over a year, tweeted she was “ready to start racing again” and “it was time to pin on a number.”
Delighted to be making her comeback, Deignan said: “I cannot wait to join the team and get back to racing. I’m really excited about being back in the team environment and really appreciate the support everyone at Trek and Trek-Segafredo has given me so far; enabling me to come back in my own time.
“I’m really pleased with my progress on the bike since having Orla last September and feel ready to re-join the peloton. I couldn’t miss the opportunity to race in Europe before the end of the Classics season and then look forward to heading back to race on home roads in the Tour de Yorkshire the following week. It’s also fitting that the course for Yorkshire goes along some of the route that will be used for the World Championships this September which remains my main goal for the year as I would dearly love to win back the rainbow bands in front of a home crowd.”
Deignan is set to ride Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallonne, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Tour de Yorkshire and the Amgen Tour of California.
She’s a rider with the Tour of Flanders and Strade Bianche titles, plus an Olympic silver medal to her name, and sports director Ina-Yoko Teutenberg is confident she will come back at the top of her game.
The former sprinter said: ” Personally, I am stoked to have Lizzie back with the team as of next week and I can tell that everybody in the team is feeling the same way, both riders and staff. I followed Lizzie’s preparations in the last months and I am confident that she will come back at a good level. The team is already very solid, and I am sure that adding Lizzie to the lineup will give the whole team an extra boost. So, yes, we are all very much looking forward to next week!”
Voxwomen will be covering the Ardennes, thanks to our Spring Classics sponsor Brother UK. Look out for our tweets, covering all the action from the heart of the race.
