HAVING retained her Women's World Cup crown, Otley's Lizzie Armitstead reckons she will be even sharper when it comes to the World Championships later this month in the United States.

The 26-year-old Boels-Dolmans rider, who secured overall World Cup victory by winning last Saturday's GP Plouay in Belgium, said of the global event in Richmond, Virginia: "With a bit of fine tuning, I can be even better.

"I have just come off an endurance block, (there was) no sprint training; and if I can sprint like that without any of the sparkly bits in there, then I am very happy."

The victory in Belgium enabled Armitstead to reclaim the leader’s jersey she lost because of some bad luck in Vargarda, with the Yorkshirewoman holding off Emma Johnsson (Orica-AIS) and world champion Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Rabo-Liv) in a sprint finish.

Armitstead finished six points clear of Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv), who was sixth in Belgium.

Jolien d’Hoore (Wiggle-Honda) had been leading the standings going into the final race but chose to skip it to prepare for the World Championships on September 19-27 and slipped to third place.

The British champion attacked in the final kilometres of the race, but her competitors came back to her wheel.

In the sprint, she proved to be the fastest of the front group and got herself and her team a double victory.

“I am very happy with this result,” Armitstead said afterwards. “I was always on the front, but I have to thank the team. They did a tremendous job.

"I attacked at the top of the last climb and got a gap but they closed up, and I thought 'I am going to have to do it in the sprint'.

"I decided to go early in the sprint and there was a gap between me and Anna and I went for it."