Otley's Lizzie Armitstead claimed her first British National Championships road race title with a sprint victory over ten-time champion Nicole Cooke in Northumber-land.

Four riders went clear on the Ryals climb on the opening lap – Cooke (MCipollini-Giambenini) and Garmin-Cervelo trio Armitstead, Sharon Laws and Emma Pooley, the defending champion.

And the 64-mile race came down to a sprint finish in Stamfordham, with Armitstead first, Cooke second and Laws third.

Armitstead, runner-up in 2009 and 2010, said: “Finally, thank God. I’ve been getting too many silvers.

“It’s nice to have a result on the road.

“It was hard. It was made a lot easier by the other girls in the break. It was anybody’s race. Emma and Sharon were attacking and Nicole did a lot of chasing.

“Sharon went with 250 metres to go and I was planning to go with 200 to go. It was a long sprint but felt good.”

Olympic champion Cooke’s first British title came in 1999 and a run of nine straight successes from 2001 came to an end last year.

She had no complaints with the result.

Cooke said: “Coming into the sprint I had my markers of when I wanted to go.

“Lizzie anticipated me and she was stronger on the day.”