Lizzie Armitstead is World Champion
27th September 2015
Otley's Lizzie Armitstead yesterday won the elite women's road
race at the World Championships in Richmond Virginia. She will wear the
famous world champion's rainbow bands jersey in road races for the next
year.
It looked as though Armitstead's chance may have gone when a breakaway of nine riders had an advantage of a minute with less than 10km to go, but they were unable to stay ahead as they tackled the steep, cobbled climb on the last lap of the 130km race.
Armitstead made an uphill burst with 900m to go to the finish, and reduced the field, but it wasn't decisive. She throttled back the power, and Anna Van der Breggen of the Netherlands led out the sprint. Armitstead took her wheel, and came round the Dutchwoman to cross the line first, then put her hand over her mouth as she realised what she had achieved.
This is the UCI's video of the last hour of the elite women's World Championship road race 2015: