Armitstead wins final stage of La Route de France

Lizzie Armitstead won the final stage of La Route de France, taking the bunch sprint in Vittel ahead of Giorgia Bronzini of Italy.

The 21-year-old from Otley has been in superb form during the week-long stage race, finishing in the top ten in the prologue and all six stages.

It meant she clinched fourth place overall – Cervélo TestTeam's best-placed rider – 48 seconds down on the winner, Annemiek Van Vleuten of the Netherlands. Armitstead won the best young rider competition as well.

Saturday's stage win in Vittel, eastern France, was Armitstead second major international victory of the season. She won a stage of the Tour de l'Aude in May.

Armitstead said: "Sarah Düster [her Cervélo team-mate] was in a really good breakaway with Luise Keller and when they came back I attacked but there were too many fresh girls for the sprint. So I just held my position and Sarah, who is well known for how crazy she is in the corners, did a really good technical finish with three corners in the last 750 metres. She went into the last corner full gas. I lost her wheel a little bit but it was also a little bit early. But I thought I'll take on the sprint a little bit early and see what happens and it worked. Winning today is really good for my confidence. I've been coming closer each day and I needed a hard day like today."