Lizzie Armitstead put paid to any notion of the so-called ‘curse’ of the world champion’s jersey on Saturday, as she rode away to take a solo victory at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in her first race in the rainbow bands.
“There’s no curse,” she joked from atop the podium in Gent. “And I was number 13,” she added, proving that there can’t have been any supernatural forces at work.
Indeed, the Boels Dolmans rider didn’t let luck or superstition come into it; her presence first in a crucial selection, then a two-woman move with Gracie Elvin, followed by her bid for freedom and solo ride to the line, attested to the more prosaic factors of talent, good form, and astute race craft.
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“World champions aren’t lucky, we work hard, and we don’t suddenly start working the next winter because you’re world champion,” Armitstead told Cyclingnews and other media after fulfilling her podium duties. “It gives me extra motivation rather than stopping me from training hard.”
Armitstead said it wasn’t the plan to make a relatively long-range solo bid, but rather to arrive at the closing kilometres with strength in numbers. However, the situation out on the road, with selections being made early on, caused her to adapt and eventually take matters into her own hands.
“We had four girls at the front, and I just kind of rolled away, it was a strange one, no one followed me,” Armitstead said of her initial move.
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