LIZZIE Armitstead won the British Championships road race for a third time with a breakaway victory in Lincoln today.

The Commonwealth Games champion and Olympic silver medallist was pipped to victory by Laura Trott 12 months ago in Abergavenny, but showed her intent by attacking on the penultimate ascent of Michaelgate.

The 26-year-old was a doubt to start in Lincoln following her Aviva Women's Tour ending crash 10 days' ago, but prevailed over the 103.5-kilometres course to celebrate victory in front of Lincoln Cathedral.

Mountain bike specialist Alice Barnes was second, with two-time Olympic track champion Trott third.

"It means I get to be proud of being British in all the races that I do," said Armistead of being able to wear the British champion's jersey for another year following her wins in 2011 and 2013.

"It means a lot - it means new kit for a start. I go to the Giro on Friday so it will be a quick turnaround for them.

"I had some good people around me before the start who told me to believe in myself and I listened.

"It was a difficult race. The longer the race went on the better I started to feel.

"The nationals is always such a hard race to control. I had it stacked against me today with some strong girls all working against me so I'm just pleased to pull it off."

Trott added: "Lizzie was in a league of her own - she attacked and that was it. Literally nobody could follow.

"She was just unbelievable - she literally just floated up the hill and just left the rest of us for dead."