British rider warns lack of coverage is making women’s cycling ‘invisible’ as she heads into the road world championships
As she prepares to return to the road world championships and a possible leader’s role alongside Lizzie Deignan, Great Britain’s Lizzie Banks has made the strongest of demands to cycling’s world governing body. The 29-year-old has told the Union Cycliste International to “put their money where their mouth is” and support races such as the recent women’s Tour of Italy, the Giro Rosa, which she described as “invisible” owing to its lack of live television coverage.
Banks won a stage in the Giro for the second successive year – a courageous breakaway victory on the longest stage of the race at the town of Tivoli on day four – and goes into Saturday’s world championship road race in Imola at the head of a strong Great Britain women’s team who include Deignan, Hannah Barnes and Anna Henderson. The hilly course promises dramatic racing while the calls for the UCI to push harder for equality grow ever stronger.
