Pfeiffer Georgi took a fantastic fifth place in the Olympic women’s road race after huge efforts from Team GB’s Anna Henderson and Lizzie Deignan on the ninth day of competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The women's road race started in front of the Eiffel Tower, tackling 158 kilometres with 1,700 metres of climbing, including three laps of the Paris city circuit, before finishing back in front of the Eiffel Tower.
A steady start to the race saw a few solo attacks early on, with the Team GB riders safely tucked into the peloton for the first 60km. With 100km to go, a six-strong group were six minutes up the road, while Olga Zabelinskaya (Uzbekistan) had a three-minute gap in no man’s land between the two groups. Georgi had a mechanical, but quickly swapped her bike to put her back in the race.
The peloton started to ramp up the pace, catching Zabelinskaya and bringing the gap down to four minutes. Up the Côte du Pavé des Gardes, the breakaway was blown to pieces with Hanna Tserakh (AIN) and Fariba Hashimi (Afghanistan) the only ones standing at the front.
Henderson showed her strength, simulating the efforts from her time-trial silver medal to power off the front of the peloton with 65km to go, but was rapidly chased down by Marianne Vos (Netherlands).
Rolling into Paris to take on three laps of the finishing circuit, Deignan seized an opportunity and attacked, with Elena Cecchini (Italy) quickly counter-attacking to splinter the peloton further. Henderson also decided to make another feisty move, with the flurry of attacks reducing the gap to the front duo by one minute and 30 seconds.
Henderson continued to race hard with another surge, but Vos was again quick to close her down as the group caught the front pair with 47km remaining.
A crash at the foot of the Montmartre climb split some of the strongest riders into two groups, with the three British women at the front of the race, alongside Vos, Lotte Kopecky (Belgium), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), Noemi Ruegg (Switzerland), Kristen Faulkner (USA), Mavi Garcia (Spain), Lianne Lippert (Germany) and Blanka Vas (HUN). The second group, including Dutch riders Demi Vollering and Lorena Wiebes, were working hard to try and close the 40 second gap with 40km remaining.
With two laps of the finishing circuit to go, Deignan powered on the front to keep the pace high, with Henderson and Georgi sat on her wheel. The London 2012 silver medallist continued to do her job, allowing Henderson to attack. Garcia, Vos and Vas were quick to get on her wheel though, foiling Henderson’s chance to get away. Deignan once again took to the front to spearhead the peloton, grimacing as they scaled the Montmartre climb once again.
Deignan and Henderson began to drop back after their efforts, giving Georgi the opportunity to attack hard off the front. The national champion managed to get some distance off the front group, before world champion Kopecky sensed the danger, dragging over the eight-strong pack to bring it back together.
The group relaxed for a moment, allowing Georgi to catch her breath, before Vos attacked, looking to simulate another gold medal winning performance from the London 2012 Olympic road race. Kopecky and Georgi were quick to respond though, before Henderson and Deignan reappeared in the group.
Deignan took another shot, getting off the front once again, before Vos and Vas flew past her and quickly gained a 20 second lead. Deignan dropped back to her British teammates, alongside Kopecky, Longo Borghini, Ruegg, Faulkner, Lippert and Garcia.
Inside 15km to go, Henderson and Deignan weren’t able to hold the pace after their momentous efforts in the chasing pack, leaving Georgi as the lone British rider.
Kopecky kicked with 10km remaining, with Faulkner the only one able to follow her as they chased down the two riders up the road, catching them with just 3.4km to go. Faulkner attacked as soon as they bridged over to get a huge gap, with the other three watching each other, leaving the American rider to ride away and take the gold medal. A sprint finish from the trio saw Vos take silver and Kopecky win the bronze, while Georgi sprinted in soon after to finish in fifth place.
Tremendous efforts from Deignan and Henderson saw them take 12th and 13th, respectively, rounding off a successful campaign for the road riders in Paris.
Speaking after the race, Georgi said:
“At the moment, I’m a little bit gutted. I felt really good today, and I was really hoping something special might happen and I could be in a shout of a medal. The last time up the climb, my legs said no, and I just saw them riding away. It hurts a bit but it’s my first Olympics and I can’t be too disappointed.
“We were the only team with three riders [in the front group after the crash]. Initially we were trying to get a gap and Lizzie said pretty early on she wasn’t feeling great so told me to sit on and try and save energy. When Kopecky came across, it was time to use that number as an attack and just try and create a situation we could win from. It's the Olympics, anything could happen. I’d rather die trying than not try anything at all!
“The noise was amazing – it was the best crowd I’ve ever experienced in my life. It was incredible. There’re always things to improve and we could have done a few things differently, but the Olympics is a different dynamic to every other race as we’re not teammates on the road usually. It’s a completely unpredictable race and you just have to do the best you can. I would have really loved a medal but up against the top four, you can’t be disappointed. It’s an amazing calibre of women.”
Deignan added:
“I could see Pfeiffer was feeling good, and I knew the best thing I could do was establish that breakaway and give Pfeiffer a free ride. As soon as Kopecky jumped across, that’s when I started attacking it. I had no intention of riding away as I was really struggling today. I like being part of the game – that's why I’m still riding! Bike riding isn’t straight forward, and I think the strongest rider in the race won so chapeau to Faulkner. Pfeiffer’s a very strong rider and it was great to ride for her.”
Day 10 of the Games sees us head to the track for the first of seven days of competition. The men’s team pursuit and men's team sprint qualifiers will take place, with the women’s team sprint continuing to its final.
You can watch on Discovery+ or BBC from 16:00 BST and follow the results on the British Cycling social media channels.
