Cycling: Villumsen wins final stage to claim Route de France

Linda Villumsen. Photo / Mark Mitchell

BikeNZ cyclist Linda Villumsen has ridden solo to victory on the final stage of the Route de France to claim overall honours.

Starting the final day one second behind Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) on general classification, Villumsen bridged to an attack by American Evelyn Steven and then proved too strong, clearing out to win the 130km seventh stage by nearly six minutes.

The New Zealander sealed the dominance by her Wiggle Honda professional team, with their star Giorgia Bronzini winning the first six stages, with only the prologue eluding the team.

"I felt bad for not winning the prologue,'' said Villumsen who has four world championship time trial medals to her credit and was fourth in the London Olympics. "I had the whole team in the car behind me, yelling the whole way. It was really cool, but then I just missed out. But now it's all made up for it, to have the victory today.''

Villumsen's attack came on the toughest part of the stage, with the most challenging climb of the race.

"Everyone's been trying for a short while, but it's been a really fast race and hard to get away for any team. Today it was just that bit harder and that made the difference.''

Villumsen had initially dropped out of her fulltime professional contract, wanting to freshen up in New Zealand this year and look at other options. She recently returned to Europe on a short-term contract with Wiggle Honda and has been in outstanding form of late including fifth placing overall in the prestigious Thuringen-Rundfahrt race.

She is preparing for next month's World Championships in Italy.

In 2006 Villumsen won the first Route de France which is now the only major stage race for females in France.