Van Vleuten victorious in Route de France

Britain’s Lizzie Armitstead (Cervelo TestTeam) won the final stage of the Route de France, as Annemiek Van Vleuten (Nederland Bloeit) sealed overall victory in the seven-day race.

Van Vleuten finished just six seconds ahead of Judith Arndt (HTC-Columbia) and 20 seconds ahead of Olga Zabelinskaia (Safi Pasta). Van Vleuten took the race leader’s orange jersey on stage one and her teammates helped her defend her narrow advantage.

During the final 118km stage, HTC-Columbia sent several riders on the attack before Arndt managed to join the key 14-rider attack. They opened a 1:30 lead as Van Vleuten’s Nederland Bloeit teammates chased but then Arndt suffered a puncture and dropped back to the peloton. The break then lost momentum and was caught 20km from the finish, setting up the sprint.

Cervelo TestTeam took charge in the technical and twisting final kilometre, with Sarah Düster leading Armitstead through the corners to give the British rider her first ever bunch sprint victory. She also captured the best young rider jersey after five top five placings during the race.

Italy’s Giorgia Bronzini (Gauss RDZ Ormu) took second in the sprint behind Armitstead and Lisa Brennauer (Hitec Products Uck) placed third.

“Winning today is really good for my confidence. I’ve been coming closer each day and I needed a hard day like today, the team was really perfect,” Armitstead said.

“I just held my position and Sarah [Düster], who is well known for how crazy she is in the corners, did a really good technical finish with three corners in the 750 metres. She went into the last corner full gas. I lost her wheel a little bit but it was also a little early so it was good and then there was nobody so I thought I’ll take this corner and take on the sprint a little bit early and see what happens and it worked.”