A powerful sprint by Elizabeth Armitstead in the Elite Women’s Road Race has netted Great Britain its first gold medal in the 2015 UCI Road World Championships, outpacing Holland’s Anna Van der Breggen by over half a bike length.

The win for Armitstead makes her the fourth British woman to triumph in the World Championships Road Race after Beryl Burton, Mandy Jones and Nicole Cooke. But a fast and furious race meant it was no easy task for Armistead, whose victory in the 2015 World Cup series made her a top pre-race contender and a marked favourite.

Arguably the most dangerous moment for the British allrounder and those contenders hoping for a sprint finish came when a nine rider break containing Australians Rachel Neylan and Lauren Kitchen, together with Sweden’s Emily Fahlin, Italian Valentina Scandolara, Germany’s Romy Kasper, Poland's Malgorzata Jasinka, Amy Pieters of Holland, Audrey Cordon of France and Coryn Rivera of the USA sheered away with 26 kiometres to go.

At one point there was more than a minute between the break and the peloton, and as the gap began to come down at last, Polish national road race champion Jasinka made an important solo attack on the second last climb that forced the eight remianing breakaways to chase hard.

No sooner had Jasinka been caught with 6.5 kilometres to go than Cordon and Scandolara bolted away, but the bunch, powered by the Netherlands swept up the seven remaining breakaways at the foot of the final ascent of Libby Hill.

Cordon and Scandolara succumbed to the high pace behind as the peloton, sensing the finish was close and now down to around 40 riders, stretched and shattered into several large groups as the road steepened. Armitstead, increasingly active in the front on the last two climbs, kept the pace high on the final ascent of Governor Street in a driving move that all but ensured there were no late attacks by her rivals and which, equally importantly, further selected the leading group to the point where it was in single figures.

On the final, long, boulevard leading to the finish, no further moves were forthcoming in the the front group of nine riders, and Van der Breggen began her final acceleration. Armitstead came thundering past the Dutchwoman’s right, though, and the Briton rider's long, steady high paced burst of speed meant she powered across the line for a well calculated gold medal. Van der Breggen took the silver to add to her silver in the Elite Women’s Time Trial earlier this week and Megan Guarnier of the USA captured the bronze.

“It’s a dream come true, the rainbow jersey is the most special thing in cycling,” Armitstead said afterwards.

“It was a complicated race, I had to make sure I kept to my plan and went for it on the climbs as hard as I could at the end. I was hoping other riders would come across and we’d keep it going, and I knew I was in good shape.”

Describing the final sprint Armitstead said, “I got on the front, I was leading and waiting for them to go for it, but it didn’t happen. It was a strange sprint, but I kept them on the left-hand side and it went perfectly.”

“I couldn’t believe I’d done it, I didn’t have time to celebrate because I was going for the line all the way.”

“When you are so close, it’s normal to feel disappointed,” added Van der Breggen. “I could sense I was close, but we know Lizzie [Armitstead] is fast and she did a great sprint.”