The ninth and final round of the Women's World Cup will go down to the wire with Nederland Bloeit pair Annemiek van Vleuten (287) and Marianne Vos (280) separated by just seven points heading into this weekend's GP de Plouay in France.
Van Vleuten returned to the top of the rankings, unseating Vos, after her victory in Sweden with Emma Johansson (Hitec Products) placing 10th and losing valuable points to her Dutch rivals. The result means that the Swedish road champion is relying on both the win this weekend and for van Vleuten not to finish in the top 20 in order to claim her first overall World Cup victory.
Johansson certainly has the form, coming off her final stage victory at the Trophée d'Or Féminin earlier this week, however it was van Vleuten who finished the better on general classification after the six-stage event, in third. Vos meantime, was eighth with Johansson in ninth.
The course for the event is exactly the same as for the men's race, with seven laps of a hilly 19.1 kilometre circuit around the town of Plouay for a total distance of 133.7 kilometres.
Britain's Emma Pooley (Garmin-Cervelo) has won the event for the last two years.
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