Bradley Wiggins: Lizzie Deignan is an inspiration to every girl around the world
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Published 05/10/2020 at 09:11 GMT
Lizzie Deignan was absolutely magnificent in winning Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday and she is an inspiration to young girls around the world, argues Bradley Wiggins on his latest Eurosport podcast. Does she deserve to win Sports Personality of the Year? Listen and subscribe now on the platform of your choice.
Elisabeth Deignan-Armitstead of The United Kingdom and Team Trek- Segafredo
Image credit: Getty Images
Lizzie Deignan was victorious at Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday, marking another memorable moment in one of the great British cycling careers.
Trek-Segafredo rider Deignan attacked from a breakaway group and despite a heroic effort from Grace Brown no-one could live with the British rider’s pace.
Deignan’s win broke the Dutch stranglehold on the event, which has been won by Anna van der Breggen (twice) and Annemiek van Vleuten (once) since its inception in 2017.
It also came in the same year she won La Course and the GP de Plouay and speaking on the latest episode of his podcast, The Bradley Wiggins Show, former Olympic and Tour de France champion Sir Bradley Wiggins was effusive in his raise for Deignan.
“She’s an inspiration to every young girl not just in the UK but around the world.
"She’s world-class, she’s a mother and she’s an example of how far women’s cycling has come and what’s capable.
"You can go away and have a family and then come back to the sport and still earn good money. She’s doing wonders for the sport at the moment.”
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Watch Deignan's winning moment as Liege-Bastogne-Liege serves up another classic
Wiggins then went on to speculate that there’s no reason she shouldn’t be in contention for the Sports Personality of the Year award, and lamented the lack of coverage her win was getting.
“I think it’s a shame she’s not getting more press attention in the UK from the national papers.
Maybe we’re biased but Sports Personality of the Year? Why not, you’ve got to start thinking about that now.
“You talk about Ronnie O’Sullivan, as great as Ronnie is he probably doesn’t want to win SPOTY!
“Let’s give it to Lizzie, come on the BBC!”
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Highlights as Deignan wins women's Liege-Bastogne-Liege
After a disappointing World Championships for Deignan it was notable how comfortable she looked back with her Trek team-mates and Wiggins believes there are multiple reasons as to why that is the case.
“You saw the relationship she has with Elisa Longo Borghini, they’ve got a great relationship, she’s said it’s almost telepathic. They’re bouncing off each other at the moment
“Lizzie at the moment, she just gets off the bike, I remember when she got medals at the worlds or Olympics she was always laughing and giggling, like she couldn’t believe what she had achieved.
“Now it’s like the elation in her face looks different. Whether she wins or loses nothing will beat the fact that she goes home to her daughter and that’s given her another gear, her life’s in perspective and she doesn’t think about it too much.
“The way she attacked today [Sunday], she doesn’t over think things and has nothing to lose and in doing that she just gets stronger all the time.”
The Bradley Wiggins Show is back for the Giro d’Italia with new podcast episodes nearly every day of the three-week Grand Tour. Listen and subscribe now on your podcast platform of choice.
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