Cycling news - Lizzie Deignan confident women's cycling is at 'pivotal moment'

Updated 12/06/2020 at 13:13 GMT

Lizzie Deignan believes women's cycling is at a "pivotal moment" as the world begins to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.

Lizzie Deignan celebrates

Image credit: Getty Images

Last month it was announced that a Paris-Roubaix race and a third day of the Challenge by La Vuelta would be added to the updated women's World Tour 2020 calendar.

Speaking to VeloNews, British rider Deignan, who returned to her bike last year having missed a period of 2018 due to the birth of her daughter, revealed she was delighted with the news.

Tour de Romandie

McNulty claims second individual time trial victory of the season at Stage 3

00:01:32

4 hours ago

"I think we’re at a really important time now," Deignan said.

Progress has really been made, and I don’t see that there’s going to be a huge regression any more.

Prior to the confirmation of the updated calendar there had been growing pressure on the UCI for greater equality between male and female riders.

The governing body had announced reforms to the women's sport in January and Deignan believes that the addition of Paris-Roubaix is another step in the right direction.

“I’m just delighted about Roubaix,” Deignan added.

Yeah, I was really surprised to see that, despite a pandemic and all the rest of it, women’s cycling is still having this amazing kind of pivotal moment. I think it’s quite a huge step forward. I’m really excited by it.

Deignan is confident women's cycling has a bright future despite concerns about the future viability of teams like CCC-Liv and Bigla-Katusha due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I was worried that the pandemic would stop progress, but actually, the signs are really good,” she said.

“I think women’s cycling is going to come out of this OK – it’s still kind of foot on the gas.”

La Vuelta Femenina