Lizzie Armitstead said on Twitter she is “proud as punch” after retaining the UCI Women Road World Cup at the weekend.

The 26-year-old Boels-Dolmans rider won Saturday’s GP Plouay in France, her third victory in the competition this season after triumphs at the Trofeo Binda in Italy in March and the Philadelphia Cycling Classic in the United States in June.

She joins the only previous British winner of the season-long competition, Nicole Cooke, in lifting the trophy twice.

After her win on Saturday, Armitstead, from Otley, West Yorkshire, said: “I was always on the front, but I have to thank the team, they did a tremendous job.”

The British champion will head to the World Championships in Richmond, Virginia next month as one of the favourites for the rainbow jersey, last won by a Briton in 2008 when Cooke became the first rider, male or female, to win the event and the Olympic road race title in the same year.