races

Deignan won several of the sport's biggest races, an Olympic silver medal at the London 2012 Games and was part of a group of top riders who fought for better salaries and conditions for female riders.

A one-day race specialist - which requires huge amounts of sustained energy across rugged terrain for more than 100km - Deignan was the first rider to win all three 'monument' one-day races: Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Tour of Flanders in Belgium, and Paris-Roubaix.

Deignan came back from her first maternity leave and won more of the sport's biggest races, including the 2019 Women's Tour of Britain, the 2020 La Course by the Tour de France and Liege-Bastogne-Liege the same year.

And because the Pomona races are worth 30 points per round, four other drivers — 2021 winner Steve Torrence, 2022 titlist Brittany Force, defending champion Doug Kalitta and Clay Millican — still are mathematically in contention.

That’s not nearly as dramatic as the mano a mano competition on the track, where some races are over in 10 seconds, the winner decided by an eyelash.