Lizzie Deignan will start Saturday’s second stage of La Course by Le Tour de France with a chance of victory after finishing second to Annemiek van Vleuten at the summit finish on the Col d’Izoard. However, given the time-trial format of the stage in Marseille she may struggle to close her 43sec deficit on the Dutch rider.

Having won the Dutch national time-trial championship in 2015 and this year taken a time-trial stage in the Giro Rosa, Van Vleuten has a stronger time-trial pedigree than Deignan, who does not profess to any particular liking for the discipline, and over the 22km in Marseille she may find 43sec is enough, with the third rider Elisa Longo Borghini set to start 1min 29sec back.

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The format is unique, with the leading women from the Col d’Izoard starting according to their time deficits in what amounts to a handicap event. It meant Van Vleuten, like the other riders, wanted to get as much time in hand as possible. “I wasn’t sure what margin I would need for the pursuit on Saturday, so I thought I had better attack early,” she said. “I was suffering from the altitude, so I wanted to test my legs.”

Van Vleuten had not considered herself a specialist climber before the Olympic Games in Rio but – like Deignan – the training she had put in to improve at the discipline last year has had a long-term effect. In Rio, she suffered a sickening crash when in a winning position, which left her with heavy concussion and three broken bones in her lower back but she recovered quickly.

Deignan spent the bulk of the ascent of the col at the front of the peloton setting a pace sufficient to whittle it down to about 30 riders by the time the serious climbing started at Arvieux, 10km from the top. The Yorkshirewoman had been set the task of reducing the group’s numbers on behalf of her Boels–Dolmans team-mate Megan Guarnier but not far after the village, it became clear the American was struggling.

The British national champion then changed tack, waiting to see if any other riders were interested in setting the pace. She returned to the front when it became clear the majority were willing to wait. Deignan continued to maintain a steady rhythm until almost five kilometres to go, when Van Vleuten made her first move, attacking strongly from behind.

That split the group, with Kasia Niewiadoma, the Ovo Women’s Tour winner, among those unable to hang on. Deignan responded strongly, together with Shara Gillow of the FDJ team, and Wiggle-High5’s Borghini. A second attack from Van Vleuten was a classic move, coming shortly after the initial acceleration to soften up the opposition, and this time Deignan had no response.

It set up a classic pursuit match between two riders with contrasting styles: Deignan the all-rounder reliant on maintaining a steady cadence versus Van Vleuten, the punchier specialist climber, who had been viewed by Deignan as the biggest threat on last year’s ascent-packed Olympic road race course.

Deignan first disposed of Gillow but was unable to make up the 150m gap Van Vleuten had opened. She closed briefly as the road levelled just before the massive rock pinnacles of the Casse Déserte but the final kilometre at 10% gradient favoured Van Vleuten, who said she had never climbed an ascent of this size on French roads before.