'I'm a total unknown', says fit-again Deignan ahead of World Champs shot
ByPA Sport
Published 22/09/2017 at 16:11 GMT
Lizzie Deignan has no idea what to expect when she bids for a second Road World Championships title on Saturday after having her appendix removed last month.
Great Britain's Lizzie Deignan does not know what to expect when she races at the Road World Championships on Saturday
Image credit: PA Sport
Lizzie Deignan has no idea what to expect when she bids for a second Road World Championships title on Saturday after having her appendix removed last month.
The 28-year-old Otley racer had an emergency operation, 13 days of complete rest and lost two kilograms of muscle, so even making the start line in Bergen, Norway, can be considered an achievement.
"I'm just waking up on Saturday hoping that I'll be all right," Deignan, nee Armitstead, told BBC Sport.
"It's fun. I'm a total unknown. My rivals won't ignore me, but they won't know what to expect."
Deignan withdrew from the Women's Tour of Holland after becoming ill overnight.
She said: "It's quite bizarre to be in such fine form - I was really going quite well - to wake up next day in a hospital bed and think, 'Right, that's it, it's over'.
"I just had this small hope that I could make it here and it wasn't something I was ready to give up on. I fought on and I'm here."
Deignan won the 2015 world title in Richmond, Virginia and was optimistic of success in Norway after appraising the 19.1-kilometres course in May. The women's peloton will compete over eight laps and 152.8km.
The Yorkshire Road World Championships in 2019 could be Deignan's swansong and she was determined to be in Bergen for another course which suits her.
"I did a recon in May, saw the circuit and thought it was perfect for me," she added.
Deignan is joined in the team by Elinor Barker, Dani King, Hannah and Alice Barnes, Mel Lowther and Hayley Simmonds.
Tom Pidcock, who is also from Otley, won the junior time trial world title on Tuesday - a day before Chris Froome took bronze in the men's elite event - and goes in the junior road race on Saturday.
Britain are without Mark Cavendish and Froome for the men's race on Sunday.
Cavendish, the 2011 world champion, had made it one of his season's targets, but is still recovering from a fractured shoulder sustained at July's Tour de France.
Tour stage winner Steve Cummings was not selected, but Britain still have options in the team for the 267.5km race.
Adam Blythe, the 2016 British champion, is expected to lead the nine-man squad which includes Owain Doull, Pete Kennaugh, Jon Dibben, Ben Swift, Mark Christian, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Ian Stannard and Scott Thwaites.
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