All eyes on Tour de France Femmes which features wife of Letterkenny cyclist

The battle between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard has provided plenty of excitement in this year’s Tour de France.

But the Donegal interest is only beginning, with the Tour de France Femmes getting underway on Sunday.

Among the women starting the gruelling eight-stage, 956 km road race in Clermont-Ferrand is Elizabeth Deignan. The 34-year-old British cyclist is married to, and coached by, Letterkenny man Philip Deignan, a former professional cyclist who rode for Team Sky.

A seasoned competitor, Deignan, née Armitstead, is a former road world champion. She has enjoyed a very successful career, having won inaugural women's Paris-Roubaix.

The West Yorkshire woman won a gold medal on the track in the team pursuit in 2009 before turning her attention to road racing. She claimed silver in the 2012 Olympics road race, joining the Boels-Dolmans team the following year. 

Among her many achievements is winning the British national road title four times, and being the top-ranked Women’s World Cup rider in 2014 and 2015.

Deignan took a break from cycling following the birth of her first child in 2018. The couple now have a second child, and Deignan has made her return to cycling this season, racing for the Lidl-Trek team. 

The route of the Tour de France Femmes began in Clermont-Ferrand in the mountains of the Massif Central on Sunday. It will finish in Pau at the foot of the Pyrenees next Sunday, July 30. 

The top ranked cyclist is defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten. The 40-year-old Dutch rider is one of the greatest cyclists of the modern era. She is also an Olympic gold and silver medallist and four-time world champion.

She is on top of her game this season, having already claimed victory in La Vuelta Femenina and the Giro d’Italia Donne. Van Vleuten will be a tough competitor to beat. And she has an extra incentive heading into the Tour de France Femmes, with the full set of 2023 Grand Tour wins within her grasp.