Annemiek van Vleuten completed victory in the women’s Tour de France race in Marseille yesterday following a 22.5km pursuit.
The 34-year-old set off first in the pursuit race after winning Thursday’s 67.5km opening stage of La Course by Le Tour de France which finished on the awesome Col d’Izoard.
The top 19 finishers from that race set off at the intervals they had come home in on Thursday, meaning Van Vleuten started with a 43sec advantage over Britain’s Lizzie Deignan.
The Briton waited for rivals Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy and American Megan Guarnier so the trio could work together in chasing Van Vleuten.
But the tactic backfired as they were 1min 40sec down by the time they linked up and Van Vleuten easily held on to win.
Deignan outsprinted Longo Borghini for second as the top three from Thursday stayed the same.
The victory was sweet recompense for Van Vleuten who suffered fractured vertebrae and severe concussion when crashing during the Olympic Games road race in Rio last year while leading and just 12km from the finish.
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