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"A dream come true" - Lizzie Armitstead wins UCI Road World Championship (+ video highlights)

26-year-old holds her nerve in thrilling finale to race in Richmond, Virginia

Lizzie Armitstead is the new UCI women's road world champion after edging out Anna van der Breggen of the Netherlands in a thrilling finish to the race in Richmond, Viriginia yesterday.

She becomes the fourth British winnner of the event after Beryl Burton, who triumphed in 1960 and 1967, Mandy Jones in 1982, and Nicole Cooke, who won in 2008, the same year she won the Olympic road race in Beijing.

WIth two laps of the closing circuit left in the 129.6 kilometre race, it looked as though the winner might come from a nine-strong breakaway group.

However, they failed to work together to ensure they stayed away, meaning the chasing group, including Armitstead who was isolated from her British Cycling team mates, was able to get back on.

The Yorkshire rider's last attack, on the final climb, put some riders out of contention, but coming over the top towards the finish line, she had not managed to distance all of her rivals.

With no-one willing to make the first move, Armitstead bided her time before launching the sprint and then, when van der Breggen got past her, used the Dutch woman to lead her out to victory.

“This is the big one,” said Armitstead afterwards. “You get to wear the jersey and the rainbows are a very special thing in cycling.

"It's a dream come true," continued the 26-year-old, who riding with Boels-Dolmans had already successfully defended her UCI Women Road World Cup title this year.

"I knew that the sprint was going to be difficult," she added. "I knew I had to lead it out in that situation, so I took it to one side of the road and dictated the sprint.

"I knew that if I was on one side of the road, they would have to attack me from the other.”

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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19 comments

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morseykayak | 9 years ago
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AWESOME  41

Lizzie Champion du Monde

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Redvee | 9 years ago
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Sat at home Saturday night with a view to watch the rugby then Twitter said about the cycling so Eurosport was the channel of choice with the ad breaks used for the rugby. A better choice of viewing.

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bobinski | 9 years ago
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Absolutely frigging awesome!

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Airzound | 9 years ago
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And she can legitimately wear the jersey unlike many who buy them 



 Well done.

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Jonny_Trousers | 9 years ago
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What a win!

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Forester | 9 years ago
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Started flipping to and from the rugby coverage, cycling soon won, what a performance proving even expert commentators wrong. Surely Dame Lizzie soon!

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bikeandy61 | 9 years ago
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Who was responsible for buying that Rainbow Jersey? Who did they think was going to win 2 Ton Tessie?

But again, well done duck!

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kiat replied to bikeandy61 | 9 years ago
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Odd they don't have different sizes or at least weren't able to get Lizzie's size right from the selection. It's endearing the jerseys still have rear pockets for the mars bars  1

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Stumps | 9 years ago
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Well done young lady, brilliant cycling.

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tourdelound | 9 years ago
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Don't forget the mens race today, live 13:50-21:00 BBC Red Button. Women's highlights on BBC 2 15:00 today.  3

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Batchy | 9 years ago
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Brilliant! Well done Lizzie. All Yorkshire folk salute you and I bet Beryl Burton will be smiling up there in velo heaven !

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OhYesWell | 9 years ago
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absolutely superb  41 and this muppet forgot to watch  20
. World champ & marriage proposal all in the same month  36

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tourdelound | 9 years ago
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Watched this race live on the telly, excellent stuff.  41

Is it me, or do the women's races seem to be more excitng to watch? Maybe something to do with the women's races being shorter?

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kiat replied to tourdelound | 9 years ago
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Yep, the really big one day races (Worlds, Olympics) seem to be much more exciting. The women are always attacking in the final third of the race. Also it helps having riders like Lizzie in there  3 I was the same bellowing Nicole Cooke over the line too. Fantastic stuff. Hopefully the mens will be just as lively this year.

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Claud And I replied to tourdelound | 9 years ago
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tourdelound wrote:

Watched this race live on the telly, excellent stuff.  41

Is it me, or do the women's races seem to be more excitng to watch? Maybe something to do with the women's races being shorter?

Yeah, I think they often are more exciting - for that reason and others  1

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Beefy | 9 years ago
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Really well deserved

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notfastenough | 9 years ago
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Wow, well done!

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1961BikiE | 9 years ago
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Well done, it's here at last. Fantastic news. Looking forward to the highlights later.

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Yorky-M | 9 years ago
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super finish. An Elizabeth even Jeremy Corbyn would bow to

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