British Women On Top Form At Giro Rosa

Banks, Deignan, Barnes and Harvey all shine in Italy’s premier stage race, writes Owen Rogers

- Owen Rogers

British professional women’s racing appears to be in rude health after one of the best returns for home riders in recent years at the Giro Rosa. Not since the days of Emma Pooley and Nicole Cooke before her have the Brits done as well as they did at this year’s nine-day event. Lizzy Banks was the standout performer, bringing home a victory on stage four as well as 12th overall.

The next day Lizzie Deignan bagged the first of two podium stage finishes, with Hannah Barnes’s (Canyon-SRAM) second place on stage six showing Brits on the podium on four consecutive days.

Part of the Trek-Segafredo squad which won the opening stage team time trial, Deignan was also often the last rider in support of Elisa Longo Borghini, who finished third overall. Barnes also played a key role in helping Kasia Niewiadoma to second on GC, while Banks’s Equipe Paule Ka colleague Mikayla Harvey was fifth and the best young rider.

“Pretty good,” was Banks’s response when asked about her performance. “I didn’t come here to ride a GC race, my aim was to support Mikayla in the young rider jersey. I did have intentions to come here for a stage win, either for myself or for my team-mates, and I eyed up stage four as the best possibility, and we executed it and we won the stage.