In the final stages of the women's Tour of Britain, the British national team put Anna Henderson in No. 2 overall and Lizzie Deignan in a blue QOM jersey. The day turned out to be more rainy than expected, and England took the fight to SD Worx-Protime, who had to work hard to defend Lotte Kopecky's gc lead.

"It was incredible, Lizzie did such a good job, she really put SD Worx under pressure. It was really, really great and she just kept trying to set me up," said Henderson, who shudders after the stage.

"I was able to go away with my favorite every time, but I couldn't leave solo to put that gap between me and Lotte. She is Chapeau to her for victory, really, because she is the champion.”.

On Stage 1 on Thursday, Deignan had no plans to go to blue jersey, but she was in a good position, so she simply went to QOM Point. Entering Stage 4, she went for more points on the climb of the grain bar – and when she had a gap over the top, the 35-year-old decided to carry on.

"Again, it was completely accidental. I came to the top of the first QOM and I just thought, "Oh, well, let's just push on." At least that put Anna in a good position, and I was hoping maybe she would jump on the [Ramsbottom] rake with Kopecky, and we could play the numbers game

Henderson and Kopecky were part of a group of 4 people who fled on the rams bottom rake, but they didn't want to get caught at 40km. In the final, the team tried to set up Henderson for attack.

"I was really trying to make it as aggressive as possible, it was our best chance. I have always been someone who wants to win the race and the best chance for Anna to win the race was a difficult race. I was not going to give it to Kopecky on the plate," Deignan said.

The national choice had a successful week even though they could not finally defeat Kopecky. They showed a strong team performance with the support of Henderson and Deignan, and Flora Perkins went to fifth and seventh place respectively in the last two stages

"We came through a group of really strong women. I was happy to help Flora in yesterday's sprint and she came fifth in a really strong group and it was cool to see her fulfill her potential," Deignan concluded.