The Giro Rosa champion, Annemiek van Vleuten, overcame her fatigue from winning the Italian stage race last weekend to win the fifth edition of La Course, the women’s race organised by the Tour de France, in Le Grand-Bornand.

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In what was the most exciting edition of La Course to date, the Dutch rider chased down Olympic champion and compatriot Anna van der Breggen, on the 14km descent of the Col de la Colombière and stole past her in the final 100m to take her second win in La Course.

“I knew if I couldn’t close the gap in the descent then it would be hard [to win],” said Van Vleuten, riding for Mitchelton-Scott. “I don’t give up so easily. On the climb when she had attacked me, the gap didn’t get any bigger and was the same on the descent, but then in the last corner I saw that she was completely finished. I had something, somewhere left.”

“I was really empty at the end,” said a crestfallen Van der Breggen, riding for Boel-Domans. “[It was] one little climb too far for me.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The breakaway on the road to Le Grand-Bornand. Photograph: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

The racing began on the descent of the penultimate climb, the Col de Romme, when Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig broke clear. The Danish rider was chased by Sunweb’s Lucinda Brand, fourth overall in the Giro Rosa, and Leah Thomas of the UHC team, but began the final climb of the Colombière with a lead of well over a minute.

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Five kilometres from the summit of the Colombière, Ludwig’s lead had fallen to less than a minute and an acceleration from Van Vleuten, who had sealed victory in the women’s Giro with a lone win on the dreaded Monte Zoncolan, ate into Ludwig’s lead until Van der Breggen, winner of the 2015 edition of La Course, moved to the head of the race, in the final kilometre of the climb.

But as the snaking 14km descent to the finish became a close pursuit between the two Dutch riders, Van der Breggen’s power, already evident in the Tour of Flanders and the Strade Bianche, evaporated at the last and Van Vleuten sped past to take the win.