Lizzie Deignan set to go all out in the World Championships road race

Lizzie Deignan knows all about the prize on offer in Sunday's elite women's road race at the UCI Cycling World Championships.

The 34-year-old expects to be helping her Great Britain team-mates on the streets of Glasgow rather than targeting a second rainbow jersey of her own this weekend, but she still treasures the memory of her year wearing the famous stripes.

"The rainbow jersey has a special significance, not just to your nation or you personally, but to every person, every sponsor you represent all year," Deignan said.

"You're celebrated at every single race that you go to. It's quite a privilege, it's a serious lap of honour… it's unique in that way.

"But it's also a constant reminder every single time you train. You look down and you see the rainbow bands and it fills you with pride, and also motivation to keep pushing hard everyday."

Deignan still gets that feeling several years on as she looks at the rainbow bands former champions wear on the end of their sleeves for the rest of their careers.

"I still feel grateful, and so I have nothing to lose when I enter a world championships now because I've done it once and I know there are so many great champions who never become world champion," she said.

"I don't take it for granted that it happened. I'm part of a privileged club."

Sunday's race will also be special for Deignan as she returns to Glasgow and the scene of her Commonwealth title in 2014, something of a breakout moment for her as national results began to translate onto the international stage.

"To be able to go into the race in Glasgow as favourite and dictate how I wanted the race to go, and to pull it off, that gave me a massive amount of confidence going forward," she said.

"It was a bit of a turning point… I've got a lot of fond memories in Glasgow. I won the national title there as well (in 2013)."

Deignan's life has changed considerably in the decade since.

As well as her world title, she has recorded major wins at Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Strade Bianche, the Women's Tour, Tour de Yorkshire and more, but also welcomed two children, Orla and Shea, with husband Philip.

"My life is just completely different," she said. "I suppose I'm a grown up now. I've always had a balanced approach in terms of knowing that there are more important things than cycling, but definitely when you have children, the ability to move on is much greater.

"Family life moves very quickly and I don't have time to dwell on bad performances whereas in the past I probably would have, and actually that's not a great use of energy."

After giving birth to Shea last September, Deignan returned to racing in April, and last month experienced the Tour de France Femmes for the first time.

The race immediately became the biggest on the women's calendar when it was relaunched last year, and Deignan said the intensity of it - the racing and the media attention that followed it - surprised her.

"I've done a lot of big events… but even I was taken aback by the kind of exhaustion you get from just the day-to-day living at the Tour de France as well as the bike-riding part," she said.

"It's a bit like a sensory overload every day. And that builds up and makes you quite tired."

Deignan rode the Tour in domestique mode for Lidl-Trek team-mate Elisa Longo Borghini as she gets back up to speed, and she expects to be working as the road captain in Glasgow for British champion Pfeiffer Georgi.

"She's earned that leadership," Deignan said.

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