Dame Sarah Storey is confident expectant mother Deignan will make a successful return to cycling after her pregnancy

Dame Sarah Storey is confident Lizzie Deignan will "find a way of making it work" when she returns to cycling after her pregnancy.

Olympic silver medallist and former world champion Deignan, who is sitting out the 2018 season with her baby due in September, was this week named as the headline signing of Trek Factory Racing, a new team joining the UCI's Women's World Tour next year.

The 29-year-old is targeting success at the 2019 Road World Championships in her native Yorkshire and then at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Storey, 40, who took her tally to 14 Paralympic gold medals in total and nine as a cyclist with three at Rio 2016, has a five-year-old daughter and a son who was born last October.

When asked for her reaction to the news about Deignan and Trek, Storey told Press Association Sport: "I think it's brilliant and if you're surprised, you shouldn't be.

"Lizzie has a long history of being a superb athlete and she'll find a way of making it work.

"It's obviously a challenge when your body is your tool of the trade, but with the right support network you can do it, and when people believe in you - that is half the battle.

"I think it's a great thing and it's good to see Lizzie with the plans she has got for after the birth of her baby. I hope it all goes really smoothly and I'm looking forward to seeing everything happen."

Storey, currently preparing for the Para-cycling Road World Championships in Italy that start in two weeks' time, offered advice to Laura Kenny when it came to the four-time Olympic champion's comeback.

Kenny competed at March's Track Cycling World Championships, six months on from the birth of her son.

Storey said: "I might have trained at a slightly odd hour, but I've always been able to do the training I've wanted to, which I think is the most important thing. It's about flexibility, having an open mind.

"The great thing about being a parent is if you've had a bad race or day you don't get to dwell on it like other athletes. I think it's a really good balance to have."

Storey has also given her thoughts on a women's Tour de France.

On Tuesday, Dutchwoman Annemiek van Vleuten won La Course, the one-day women's race organised to sit alongside the Tour de France which divides opinion, with many feeling it is a token gesture.

Storey said: "It's something that needs to be addressed.

"People seem to think it's alright that we don't get the same iconic stage races and that we should just settle for that, and we shouldn't.

"Ultimately it needs to be a multi-stage race that the women can do that has equal footing, that is showcased in the same way as the men.

"It's not just a matter of clicking fingers and expecting it to happen. But we need to start looking at the different things that will allow it to be a possibility in the future.

"It's difficult to be able to put specifics on it. But France are hosting the Olympics and Paralympics in 2024 and if they haven't got a women's Tour de France by then, then they should have - that is the year the whole world is looking at France.

"So why not build something up that works, so that by 2024 they have something that we could say is of equal standard to the men's race, that is of equal footing."