American Chloe Dygert Owen looked disappointed after finishing fourth in the elite women's road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire.The 22-year-old added a second world title to the one she won in the time trial earlier in the week to She had hoped to win the rainbow jersey.

"When I jumped out at the end, I knew I wanted to go out in front and go for the gold," she said. She attacked the decisive chase group on the Harrogate finish circuit in an attempt to catch Annemiek van Fruten of the Netherlands, who eventually won the race in a solo breakaway.

"I felt good and hoped I could close the gap, but that wasn't the case today. My mentality was gold medal or no. I missed the podium today, but I'm happy to have given it my all on the course."

The women covered 150 km on a technical and challenging course that headed north from Bradford and then south to the undulating three finish circuits of Harrogate.

Dygert won two titles in 2015, the junior women's time trial and road race in Richmond. Since then, she has spent most of her time training and racing on the track and is a five-time world champion. During the road season she is part of the development team Twenty20-Sho Air and has never run a race as long as the elite women's 150km parkour in Yorkshire or in Europe.

"Not only was this my first European road race, but it was about 20 km with some of the strongest riders in the world, so I wondered what would happen," said Dygert-Owen.

The Dutch went into the world championship race with the strongest team, while the Americans had the option of using Dygert-Owen in the breakaway and Colin Rivera in the sprint final.

Van Vleuten attacked on the Lofthouse, the second of two climbs that peaked about 45km into the race. She initially gained 50 seconds, but lost more than two minutes to the chase group that had formed behind her.

Daigert Owen joined the chase group with Lizzie Deignan (GBR), Elisa Longo Borghini, Soraya Paladin (ITA), Cecilie Uttrup-Ludwig (DEN), Clara Koppenberg (GER), Amanda Spratt (AUS) The team joined the chasing pack with Defending champion Anna van der Breggen was also there, but sat in the chase group because her teammate was upstream.

Van Vleuten maintained her advantage in the three finish circuits and went on to win the world title. Behind her, Diggart Owen attacked the chase group and attempted to bridge to Van Vleuten. At first it looked as if she would close the gap to some extent and at least be in contention for the silver medal. However, the unfamiliar distance of the race began to take its toll, and Diggart-Owen's legs reached their limits. She eventually stalled and was caught by van der Breggen and Spratt, finishing in fourth place.

"Yes, it was definitely necessary," Diggart-Owen said of her move toward the end of the race. It was the right time to attack, and I knew I could, but my body was at its limits." But my body was at its limits. It's a shame I didn't get the result I was hoping for, but my legs just didn't last today. It was a very hard race and I gave it my all."