The reigning world champion was forced to pull out of last week’s Ronde van Drenthe due to illness, with her Boels Dolmans team-mate Chantal Blaak triumphing on that occasion.

A hilly 112 kilometre route was already expected to provide the platform for numerous attacks, with the peloton splitting on several occasions throughout the race, only to come back together again.

The key move came on the penultimate lap of four with Armitstead and The Netherlands’ Anna van der Breggen, who took over the World Tour lead last week, among an eight-rider break.

America’s Megan Guarnier, Poland's Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Switzerland’s Jolanda Neff, The Netherlands’ Annemiek Van Vleuten, Sweden’s Emma Johansson and Belarus’ Alena Amaliusik also featured in the strong breakaway.

The move was able to stay away, with Neff then launching a solo bid for victory in the final lap.

Despite the Swiss star opening up a 30 second advantage over her rivals she was eventually caught in the closing kilometres.

Armitstead was then able to out-sprint her Boels Dolmans team-mate Guarnier to claim the race victory in a time of three hours, 11min and 10sec.

The podium was completed by Neff, who ended four seconds adrift of the race winner.

Following her victory, Armitstead regained the Women’s World Tour race leader’s jersey, having won two of the opening three races of the series.

The inaugural World Tour will continue next week with the one-day race Gent-Wevelgem taking place on March 27 in Belgium.