Elisa Balsamo takes road race victory at Women's World Championships in Flanders

Italy's Elisa Balsamo took an impressive victory in today's women's world championship race beating Marianne Vos in the sprint for the line. 

After a late solo attack from the Spanish rider Mavi García the leading group of around thirty riders came back together for the final 10km. 

The Dutch team launched attack after attack throughout the last few kilometres before  Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland) made a few attempts to go clear.

Eventually a diminished group came to the line with 23-year-old Balsamo patiently timing her sprint to perfection. 

For the first time since 2002, the UCI World Championships returned to Flanders this year. 

The women's course was 157.7km long with 1,260m of climbing and 20 categorised bergs.

Earlier in the day Britain's Zöe Bäckstedt took a stunning victory at the Junior Women’s World Championships road race after winning a two-up sprint to the line.

Her dad's reaction to the win was quite nice as well. 

Wondering how on earth @Maggy_PR held it together when his daughter, Zoe, was battling it out for a rainbow jersey?

Answer, he didn't, but you have to love this reaction. Congratulations Zoe Backstedt, Junior Women's World Champion pic.twitter.com/tUhioUo1S3

— GCN Racing (@GcnRacing) September 25, 2021