'Hectic, a complete mess' – Lizzie Deignan relives historic Paris-Roubaix triumph ahead of 2022 edition

Updated 24/03/2022 at 15:49 GMT

Lizzie Deignan wowed the cycling world when she went on an audacious solo breakaway over the rough cobblestones of Paris-Roubaix to win the inaugural women's race for Trek-Segafredo. Unable to defend her title in 2022, she looks at the tactics that might be needed to win the next edition of the race. Eurosport and discovery+ are proud to be the home of women’s cycling

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Paris-Roubaix Femmes is returning for its second edition, the inaugural race having been held in October last year. Originally slated for April, it was delayed due to the Covid pandemic but in 2022, returns to its intended slot on the calendar.

All of which means that not quite six months have passed since Lizzie Deignan won for Trek-Segafredo, with an audacious solo attack that delighted purists in its bravery, the English rider coming home bloodied and bruised to take home the fabled cobble stone trophy.

Deignan won’t be on the start line to defend her crown in April, sitting out this season after announcing she was expecting her second child. But she did share a few thoughts on her victory, and whether we’ll see a similar solo attack this time around.

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“You knew that you needed to be up front to avoid the carnage, like at the Tour of Flanders, but actually a tactic like mine was an interesting one,” she tells Eurosport.

“There will be more people looking to open the race earlier and go solo earlier again, because it’s the safest place to be in those conditions.”

The race last year was held in the dry, but overnight rain had left the roads and especially the pave sections of cobblestones slick, greasy and muddy. Conditions were treacherous to say the least, with it easy to see why the men’s edition has been nicknamed the Hell of the North for so long.

Deignan’s victory came against the odds, as she wasn’t the team leader on the day. But with the first cobblestone section coming 30 kilometres into the race, she explained just how it was that she found herself attacking alone.

“The first 30km was completely hectic, a complete mess. Our designated leaders Ellen [van Dijk] and Elisa [Longo Borghini], they were in the back, stuck behind crashes and I said to Audrey [Cordon-Ragot] our team leader at the time, 'do I go back for them or do I stay in front?' and she made the really good call to say 'no Lizzie you stay in front, we need someone up there'.”

Deignan powers home for Paris-Roubaix victory

What followed sent the already renowned Deignan into cycling history books - 80km of brutal riding, handlebars dripping with blood, every tiny mistake a hair’s breadth away from total ruin, with the legendary Marianne Vos doing everything she could to reel the Trek-Segafredo rider in.

“You can’t wait for a call on the radio to tell you what to do, you have to be able to rely on your instincts, choose the right lines, choose the right wheels to follow and it’s an instinctive racer who does well in those conditions,” said Deignan in recollection. “Luckily, I enjoy and thrive in those conditions. We were told to embrace the chaos in the team meeting [the morning of the race] and that was quite key.”

Admitting that with everyone jostling for position, especially at the start, the race is both “hectic and dangerous,” Deignan will be an interested spectator this season when the race runs in its April slot. Tactically, much of course will depend on the conditions but where Paris-Roubaix is concerned, the weather gods are rarely kind to the racers.

Will there be another lengthy solo attack - or has that lesson been learned? Deignan isn’t sure, although she admits with a laugh that she’s “not sure that anyone would let me up the road again, I’ve probably had my ‘easy’ win at Roubaix.”

The red-stained handlebars and grimaced expression that comes to the fore when thinking of last year’s edition would be described as anything but easy, but perhaps Deignan is right, and this year’s edition will see a completely different range of tactics on show.