Van Vleuten won last year’s edition of the event, held over two days, featuring a climb at the Col d’Izoard and a handicapped time trial in Marseille.

A climber friendly 112.5 kilometres route, beginning in Annecy, provided the Mitchelton-Scott rider with a chance to defend her title.

The race was ignited on the penultimate climb of the day, with Denmark’s Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig launching a solo attack on the Col de Romme.

She remained clear until the latter kilometres of the final climb on the Colombière climb in Haute-Savoie.

The Dane was caught and passed by Dutch riders van Vleuten and van der Breggen, with South Africa’s Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio also in contention.

While Moolman-Pasio produced the first attack of the trio, it van der Breggen who broke clear with the summit of the climb approaching.

Van Vleuten, who secured a maiden Giro Rosa title on Sunday (July 15), set off in pursuit on the descent towards Le Grand-Bornand.

She was eventually able to close the gap to Olympic road race champion van der Breggen, before passing her in sight of the finish to triumph in 3 hours 20min 43sec.

Only a second separated the top two, with van der Breggen forced to settle for second after her impressive solo effort.

Moolman-Pasio rounded off the top three by crossing 82 seconds down on the winner.

It was the fifth edition of the International Cycling Union (UCI) Women’s WorldTour race.

The first three editions of the women’s race, arranged by Tour de France organiser Amaury Sport Organisation, took place on the Champs Elysées on the final day of the Grand Tour.

Organisers opted to alter the format last year with the two stage event.

They reverted back to one stage this year, with the route based on the stage 10 of the Tour de France taking place today.