NICE (Reuters) – Britain’s Lizzie Deignan edged a thrilling sprint finish along the Nice seafront to beat great rival Marianne Vos and win La Course by Le Tour de France on Saturday.
The hilly 96-km route around the Mediterranean city boiled down to a battle between a leading group of six, also featuring Dutch world champion Annemiek van Vleuten, Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Demi Vollering and Deignan’s Trek Segafredo team mate Lisa Longo Borghini.
As the sprint wound up in the final kilometre along Promenade des Anglais it looked as though Vos, who out-sprinted Deignan for gold at the London Olympics in 2012, had nailed a second successive victory as she opened up a sizeable gap.
But Dutch great Vos had gone too early and on the long final drag Monaco-based Deignan dug deep and she surged past on the line. Vollering was third.
La Course by Le Tour, featuring the cream of women’s professional cycling, is the curtain-raiser for the Tour de France which starts later on Saturday in Nice.
The women are still without a multi-stage Tour de France of their own, although support is growing to start one possibly as early as 2022.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; editing by Clare Fallon)
