Saturday 27 September 2014 18:36, UK
Lizzie Armitstead had to settle for seventh in the women’s world championship road race as France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prevot claimed victory in a sprint finish.
Armitstead had been one of four riders who broke clear of the field on the final climb of the day and they had looked set to sprint for the rainbow jersey between themselves.
However, a chasing group caught them with 500m to go and Ferrand-Prevot capitalised by beating Germany’s Lisa Brennauer into second place and Sweden’s Emma Johansson into third.
Defending champion Marianne Vos had also been in the late escape with Armitstead but faded away in the sprint and finished tenth, ending her run of eight consecutive world road race podiums.
Armitstead said afterwards: “I put all my eggs in one basket on that last climb. In the sprint, I got on [Giorgia] Bronzini’s wheel - I thought that was the best option.
“I just messed it up. It’s difficult to re-focus with 500m to go in a sprint after I had committed to that move.”
The 127.4km race took place over seven laps of an 18.2km circuit starting and finishing in Ponferrada. Although each lap contained two climbs, a 4.5km downhill and then flat run to the line opened up the possibility of a sprint finish.
Armitstead was positioned well at the head of the peloton throughout the race, and she created the first major split with an acceleration 22km out, reducing the main bunch to just 18 riders.
The group was still together leading on to the final climb, but after attacks from Johansson 5km from home and then Armitstead 200m later, a new lead quartet made up of those two riders, Vos and Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini formed.
They opened up what looked like a decisive gap on the descent off the climb, but when the road flattened out and they all became reluctant to set the tempo on the front, their pace slowed and a chasing group was subsequently able to catch back up.
Vos led out the subsequent sprint and briefly led before falling away, but Armitstead was never in contention and could only look on as Johansson salvaged a bronze medal for her efforts.
Armitstead added: “The race was just too easy, which sounds ridiculous when I didn’t win, but it was too easy. It needed to be harder so much earlier in the race. Everyone just played sprinter cards. It was just a negative race.”
Earlier in the day, Jonas Bokeloh handed Germany their third gold medal of the UCI Road World Championships by winning the junior men’s road race ahead of Russia’s Alexandr Kulikovskiy in second and the Netherlands’ Peter Lenderink in third.
Women’s world road race result
1 Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (France), 3:29:21
2 Lisa Brennauer (Germany), same time
3 Emma Johansson (Sweden), st
4 Giorgia Bronzini (Italy), st
5 Tiffany Cromwell (Australia), st
6 Shelley Olds (United States), st
7 Lizzie Armitstead (Great Britain), st
8 Linda Villumsen (New Zealand), st
9 Hanna Solovey (Ukraine), st
10 Marianne Vos (Netherlands), st
Junior men’s road race result
1 Jonas Bokeloh (Germany), 3:07:00
2 Alexandr Kulikovskiy (Russia), same time
3 Peter Lenderink (Netherlands), st
4 Edoardo Affini (Italy), st
5 Magnus Bak Klaris (Denmark), st
6 Izidor Penko (Slovenia), st
7 Lucas Eriksson (Sweden), st
8 Lorenzo Fortunato (Italy), st
9 Leo Danes (France), st
10 Sjoerd Bax (Netherlands), st
