Vos victorious in Trofeo Alfredo Binda

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Marianne Vos convincingly won the Trofeo Alfredo Binda, the opening round of the women's World Cup series in Italy, to prove yet again she is currently the best female athlete in cycling.

Riding for the Netherlands national team just a few weeks after she won the women's cyclo-cross world title, Vos beat a group of nine riders that included some of the biggest names and strongest riders in the female peloton. Her win makes her the big favourite for next Sunday's women's Tour of Flanders.

Martine Bras gave the Netherlands a one-two, although she was riding for her Gauss-Rdz-Ormu trade team, with Emma Johansson (Redsun Cycling Team) third. In the same time but beaten in the sprint were Ruth Corset (Australia), Noemi Cantele (HTc-Columbia), Nicole Cooke (Great Britain) and Elena Berlato (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo – Ghezzi), Judith Arndt (HTC-Columbia) and Tatiana Guderzo (Valdarno).

Olga Zabelinskaya (Russia) finished five seconds down, in tenth place, after making a lone attack in the final kilometre. She was caught by the front group, before Vos blasted to the line to take her second consecutive victory in the tough Italian race held between Lake Maggiore and the tough hills west of Varese.

As expected, it was the testing Brinzio climb that caused the first real split in the race, with 20 riders going clear. However they were caught before the summit and stronger 16-rider group formed over the top that included Vos and the riders who would go on to fight for victory.

Some riders were dropped on the finishing circuit that included the Orino climb and was covered four times as the race tested the rider's early season form.

However with so many of the best women in the world in the move and so many teams represented, nobody was going to get away before the finish. The poorer sprinters such as Berlato, Guderzo, Pooley and Verbeke all tried, but were pulled back each time.

Zabelinskaya bravely tried again and got a hundred metre gap with a kilometre to go but she faded on the slight climb to the finish. Vos, clinical as ever, timed her effort perfectly and hit the front just at the right moment, to take her second successive victory in the Italian women's Classic.