World champion Lizzie Armitstead has continued her dominance of the inaugural UCI Women’s WorldTour by winning the Tour of Flanders this afternoon.

The Boels-Dolmans rider attacked on the day’s final climb, the Paterberg, with Swedish champion Emma Johansson of Wiggle-High5.

The pair teased out an advantage of around a quarter of a minute over a small chasing pack led by Orica-AIS.

Heading into the final kilometre of the 141-kilometre race, they still had an advantage of 9 seconds over their pursuers, Johansson sitting on Armitstead’s wheel and opening the sprint with around 100 metres remaining.

The women crossed the line together, the British rider taking the photo finish by little more than a tyre’s width, with her team mate Chantal Blaak leading the following group home.

It’s Armitstead’s third victory in five UCI Women’s WorldTour races so far this season, following wins at the Italian races the Trofeo Binda and Strade Bianche – and her Boels-Dolmans team have won all five.

Previoulsy, the Otley-born rider also won the UCI 1.1 ranked Belgian race, the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, in what was her first outing in the rainbow jersey.