Lizzie Armitstead: Strade Bianche is part of a journey to a bigger goal

World champion Lizzie Armitstead will proudly line-up in the rainbow at the start of the Women’s WorldTour at the Strade Bianche race on Saturday.

Armitstead is an excellent ambassador for women’s cycling and rightly proud to be part of the first ever Women’s WorldTour series but true to character, she is not afraid to point out the Tuscan race is only a stepping stone on the road to her big goals of the 2016 season: The Tour of Flanders and the road race at the Rio Olympics in the summer.

“I think it’s really important and it’s exciting that we have the first race of the Women’s WorldTour,” she said during the pre-race press conference sat alongside men’s world champion Peter Sagan.

“I’ve said it a few times that I’ll reserve my judgment on the Women’s WorldTour until we see how it rolls out. But I think Strade Bianche is a really good race to start with. It’s an iconic race and a really successful race for us last year. It was probably one of the hardest races of season but I think it’s on a good course to showcase women’s cycling because you have to race it. It’s a good race to watch.”