Lizzie Armitstead crowned British road race champion a third time
Sunday 28 June 2015 19:53, UK
Lizzie Armitstead bounced back from her Women’s Tour-ending crash to win the British Championships road race for a third time with a breakaway victory in Lincoln.
Armitstead finished the 67-mile course in a time of two hours, 51 minutes and 14 seconds, just 11 days after she was airlifted to hospital after crashing while celebrating her opening stage win in Suffolk.
The Commonwealth Games champion and Olympic silver medallist, who was pipped to victory by Laura Trott 12 months ago, attacked on the penultimate ascent of Michaelgate to finish one minute and 52 seconds ahead of Alice Barnes, with Trott third.
"It means I get to be proud of being British in all the races that I do," said Armitstead referring to being able to wear the British champion's jersey for another year following her wins in 2011 and 2013.
"It means a lot - it means new kit for a start. I go to the Giro on Friday so it will be a quick turnaround for them.
"I had some good people around me before the start who told me to believe in myself and I listened.
"It was a difficult race. The longer the ace went on the better I started to feel.
"The nationals is always such a hard race to control. I had it stacked against me today with some strong girls all working against me so I'm just pleased to pull it off."
Trott added: "Lizzie was in a league of her own - she attacked and that was it. Literally nobody could follow.
"She was just unbelievable - she literally just floated up the hill and just left the rest of us for dead."
