Lizzie Deignan: Olympic gold my 'biggest goal' for 2020

The GB rider won silver in the road race at the 2012 Olympics but missed out on a medal in 2016.

“The Olympics will be my biggest goal of the season,” she told Cycling Weekly. “My season will be tapered around that really, I went to see the course in Japan in July and I really liked it so I’m excited about that as well.”

After having a baby in 2018, Deignan won the Women’s Tour in 2019 and also finished seventh at the Liege–Bastogne–Liege race, which she compares to the Tokyo course for the Olympics.

“Yeah, it’s a tough course and kind of a bit reminiscent of something like Liege, it’s a hard, hard classic,” she said.

Deignan expects the Dutch, who will probably be led by defending Olympic champion Anna van der Breggen and world champion Annemiek van Vleuten, to be favourites in Japan.

“They’ll have the strongest team, absolutely no doubt. But sometimes in the Olympics it’s an advantage to be racing on your own, it’s a totally different race, the peloton’s really small, so I think the team aspect will be lessened.”

The 31-year-old also says she feels better prepared in her second season as a mother.

“I feel like going into this season I’ve got an advantage because I’ve done a year of being a mum under my belt and so I think I know how to make it work together.”