Lizzie Deignan misses out on medal in Tokyo as Austria win Olympic gold

Lizzie, 32, will have been disappointed not to be challenging for a medal but had a respectable finish just outside the top ten, after the peloton miscalculated its chase of the leading riders.

Austria’s Anna Kiesenhofer took a shock solo win after being part of a breakaway at the very beginning of the 137km race and breaking away on her own with 40km remaining.

Kiesenhofer, 30, has not had a professional contract since 2017 but the peloton had no response to her breakaway with her eventually winning 75 seconds clear of Annemiek van Vlueten – one of the Dutch favourites – who came home in second, with Italian Elisa Longo Borghini picking up bronze.

Anna Kiesenhofer won the Women's Road Race for Austria. Pic: PA

At one point the leaders opened up a 10 minute advantage on the main pack of riders – a time gap unheard of in women’s cycling but aided by a lack of communications and small teams.

Kiesenhofer’s win is the first gold Austria has picked up at a Summer Olympics since 2004.

The Austrian’s lead was so big the Dutch rider van Vlueten had thought she was the winner when she crossed the line having reeled in the other two breakaway riders in the closing stages of the race.

It was still a remarkable result for the Dutch rider, who suffered serious back injuries in Rio 2016 and also crashed earlier in this morning’s race.

Austria won gold, The Netherlands took silver, and Italy claimed bronze. Pic: PA

Cycling is often unpredictable, with the risk of crashes, 3,000 metres of climbing and the searing heat and humidity of Tokyo making it hard to predict, but very few would have picked Kiesenhofer as this year’s Olympic champion.

The Bradford district’s attention will now turn to the men’s triathlon which gets underway at 10.30pm tonight, with former Bradford Grammar School student and Bingley Harrier Jonny Brownlee going for gold for Team GB.