“It was a really hard race,” the winner commented. “The weather was really bad the entire race. There were breakaways constantly, so the team really had to work hard all day.”

Two National Teams and 16 UCI Women’s Teams lined up for a 132-kilometre race in rainy and cold Vårgårda, 70 kilometres north-east of Gotebörg. The weather conditions plus the tough 11-kilometre lap without a single metre of flat roads and some very technical cornering made for a real hard race.

The Swedish National Team animated the race with attacks by Linnea Sjöblom and Hanna Nilsson in the opening kilometres. The next attack by Malin Rydlund triggered Vera Koedooder (Bigla Cycling Team) to start one of her iconic, long breakaways.

The two riders worked well together with the Dutch woman being the strongest of the two. She picked up the sprint points and the twelve points on offer for the UCI Women Road World Cup mountain classification.

Koedooder was really happy to take over the jersey from Astana-Be Pink’s Alena Amialiusik. Both riders are now at twelve points with one race to go.

“It was an incredibly hard race. The conditions made it really tough for a 75-kilometre breakaway. It is a nice present to get this jersey as an anti-climber. I am proud to wear this now but unfortunately my Bigla Team is not riding in Plouay next week to defend it”.

At 45 kilometres from the line eight riders bridged towards the two leaders but the peloton was only 45 seconds behind. The race really started in earnest in the final two laps with attacks flying. Both Rabo-Liv and Giant-Shimano had strength in numbers. Knetemann, Van Vleuten, Van der Breggen, Vos and Brand all attacked the field over and over again.

“The team had a real tough job countering all the attacks and breakaways,” Blaak said. “My job was to ride for the team as well but it didn’t mean I couldn’t take the chances when they presented themselves. I attacked just at the right time.”

The 24-year old attacked on the final climb of the day but she was caught. Soon after Roxane Knetemann tried her luck and Blaak bridged towards her compatriot with Amy Pieters. In the final 350-metres straight Pieters opened the sprint but Blaak beat her in a direct duel to win her first individual UCI World Cup race ever.

Lizzie Armitstead finished eighth for Boels-Dolmans, two places ahead of Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS). This means that the British rider wins the overall World Cup with one race to go.

“I am relieved and happy. I didn’t expect to win the overall World Cup today already,” Armitstead said.

Elena Cecchini takes home the leader’s jersey for best young rider this year. The Italian Champion came in eleventh today and that was enough to secure the overall win.

The sprints jersey will be decided in Plouay with Rabo-Liv’s Iris Slappendel leading with 20 points.

The last World Cup race is the GP Plouay on Saturday 30 August. You can watch it live on the UCI YouTube channel or via the livetweets on @UCIwomencycling. Short highlights will be on YouTube on Saturday night and on selected networks worldwide. A 25-minute race summary will follow a few days later.