Lizzie Deignan faces rival Kopecky in reborn women’s Tour

Former world champion leads home hopes as four-day event starts in Wales after a ‘monumental effort’ to secure its future

Ninety riders from 15 teams will roll out of Welshpool on Thursday morning as the resurrected and newly renamed Tour of Britain Women gets under way in mid-Wales. The four-day event is one of the key build-up races before the Paris Olympics, and Lizzie Deignan will lead a strong Great Britain Cycling Team.

The world road race champion, Lotte Kopecky, and her SD Worx-Protime teammate Lorena Wiebes, recent winner of all three stages in the Ride London Classique, are the star attractions with Deignan, the home favourite and 2015 road race world champion, plus the double national road race champion Pfeiffer Georgi, the leading British riders.