Vos wins third World Cup in Dutch 1-2

Marianne Vos took her third World Cup victory of the season in the Open de Suède Vargarda on Sunday. The DSB Bank rider bested Cervelo's Kirsten Wild and hometown favourite Emma Johansson (Red Sun) to claim the sprint victory in Sweden. Johansson's third place was good enough to keep her in the lead of the series by just three points over Vos.

"It was great to win," said Vos. "It was a hard race. In the first few laps you think, 'it's a good circuit, its not so hard' but in the last five or six laps you start to feel the climb and of course, the high speed. But I felt good and I thought that maybe when it comes to a sprint I had a chance."

The racers enjoyed clear skies and pleasant temperatures for the eighth round of the World Cup in Sweden. The relatively flat course and favourable conditions nullified the action in the first half of the race, but as the laps counted down, the Cervelo TestTeam took control of the pace and shredded the field.

By the time the race entered the final lap, the lead group was reduced to just 21 riders..

"I saw that Cervelo were working for the sprint and I had to stay focused because of the attacks on the climb. But then I made it into the sprint," said Vos.

"It was pretty weird in the last kilometre. I was 'sandwiched' and then I nearly bumped onto the curb, and so I had some sprints before the sprint. Then I saw Kirsten [Wild] and I came into the straight on her wheel. That was the best position I could have had. We were side by side and sprinting as hard as we could, and in the last twenty metres I managed to come over her."

The race for the World Cup series lead got closer than ever, and Johansson knew exactly where she had to place in order to keep the World Cup leader's jersey going into the next round at the GP Plouay on August 22. "I knew I had to be third if Marianne won to keep the jersey. Three points, its not much, but I still get to ride in the jersey one more time."

The Swede was up against strong opposition from the Cervelo TestTeam, winners of Friday's Team Time Trial, who rode hard on the front with Kristin Armstrong and Christiane Soeder to split the bunch and set up the sprint for Wild. "I didn't have a super day today. The circuit was hard and there was not so much wind, which I had been hoping for. It was just too hard to ride away.

"I think Cervelo were riding for a sprint [finish] and when they start riding for a sprint you just know its going to happen. I thought maybe a smaller group could go, but then I realised it was going to be a sprint and I think Marianne [Vos] knew too and she started saving herself for a sprint. She was so strong today and Kirsten Wild too."

Wild came 20cm from her first individual World Cup victory, but the team performed well, according to manager Thomas Campana. "We wanted to have the race under control until there were six laps to go, after which we started the action and tried to split the bunch to isolate the strong sprinters from other teams.

"The team was very strong, and they worked incredibly well together to set up a good lead out for Kirsten. Until the last 100m it looked like she could win, but she was beat by a former world champion by 20 cm - we can live with that! There were no mistakes made in this race - the women had a great race today."

"The team did really well," said Wild. "We had control from the beginning and we followed our plan. It worked well; we stayed together until the very end when we tried to set up the sprint, but unfortunately I was second. The team was very, very good. She [Marianne Vos] passed me in the last few meters. I think she was just faster today."