Van Vleuten wins penultimate World Cup round

Annemiek Van Vleuten (Nederland Bloeit) won the eighth round of the UCI Women's World Cup in Vargarda, Sweden. The 28-year-old Dutchwoman outsprinted Eleonora Van Dijk (HTC Highroad Women) and Nicole Cooke (SC MCipollini Giambenini) for the victory in the World Cup's penultimate race, which vaulted her into the overall World Cup lead previously held by teammate Marianne Vos.

Contested on 12 laps of an 11km circuit, the race's decisive move formed with three and a half laps remaining and was comprised of Van Vleuten, Van Dijk, Cooke, Irene van den Broek (AA Drink), Iris Slappendal (Garmin-Cervelo), Oxana Kozonchuck (Russian Federation) and Regina Bruins (Netherlands).

Far from sitting-in on the break, Van Vleuten was active throughout, driving on the main climb and also out of Vargarda, on a short, steep rise after a railway bridge at the beginning of the circuit.

The escapees were caught inside of the final kilometre, but Van Vleuten, Van Dijk and Cooke had already launched their sprint and held off the charging peloton.

Van Vleuten was clearly in control in the final 250 metres, but she made sure of her win by sprinting to the line and only celebrating afterwards with a short punch in the air and a shout of delight.

"We went away in the third last lap," said Van Vleuten. "I was there with a lot of Dutch girls and it was perfect. We worked well together. It was exciting because the gap wasn't very big. No bigger than 40-45 seconds I think.

"In the end it almost came back together. I attacked with 800m to go. I felt so strong today. I had really good legs and I was in front from the start of the sprint."

Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit), who was wearing the World Cup leader's jersey in the race and was in prime position in the bunch when it caught the breakaway, sat up when she realised that her teammate would win. She then watched for the finishing position of their nearest competitor in the season-long competition, Emma Johansson (Hitec Products), who managed tenth.

Vos knew immediately that was enough for Van Vleuten to take the World Cup lead, and made her own two-handed celebration for her teammate as she passed through the finish area in 17th place.

"She [Johansson] wasn't near the front," said Vos. "She and her team had done much of the work to try to close the gap and I think it was all too much in the end. We knew Annemiek was strong and she had really good legs. To have both of us in the top two places [of the World Cup] is incredible."

The top three in the World Cup standings are Van Vleuten (287 points), Vos (280) and Johansson (212) with one round remaining: the GP de Plouay on August 27.

While the Dutch teammates are closely matched for the overall World Cup title, Emma Johansson must win in Plouay with van Vleuten failing to finish in the top 20 in order to wrest the leader's jersey from an otherwise almost certain Nederland Bloeit win.