Marianne Vos continued her almighty domination of women's cycling when she took her third - and second consecutive - world championships road race title with a strong solo attack on the final climb in Florence earlier today. Despite her apparent strength, she refused to see herself as the strongest climber in the race.

Marianne Vos has been totally dominant for several years but for some reason, the world championships always seemed to slip away from her. After her maiden win in 2006, she finished 2nd 5 years in a row until she finally got back on the top step on home soil last year.

The curse now seems to be broken for Vos. In today's 2013 race in Florence, the Dutchwoman left no one wondering who was the strongest rider in the race. Despite a gutsy attempt from the American and Italian team to eliminate their rival on the tough course, she never appeared to be in trouble.

The race was by far the toughest so far at this year's world championships and when the bell rang to signal the start of the final lap, the lead group only consisted of 8 riders. Vos was supported by teammate Anna Van Der Breggen but the Dutch duo was up against the mighty force of the three Italians Rossella Ratto, Elisa Longo Borghini and Tatiana Guderzo.

Vos bided her time the final time up the long Fiesole climb before launching a devastating attack on the final passage of the steep Via Salvati climb. No one was able to keep up with her fierce acceleration and she soloed across the line to add another title to her palmares.

"Of course it's great to defend the title," she said on the post-race press conference. "They always say it's hard to win one. Of course I won one before. To do it two times in a row is even more difficult, especially with so strong competitors."

"The Italian team was really strong today. They made it a tough race for us. And the Americans too. They started already in the beginning when we arrived at the circuit. At that moment, we knew it was going to be hard with 5 laps."

Teammate Van Der Breggen did a fantastic job on the final two laps when she covered several attacks from the three Italians. Vos had plenty of praise for her teammates.

"It was a really good race by the team," she said. "They gave me the opportunity to stay as quiet as possible in the bunch until the last lap. Of course it was great to have Anna Van Der Breggen in the breakaway to react to the attacks. Then I knew I had a chance on the last climb."

Van Der Breggen ultimately finished 4th and Vos was not surprised by the performance of her compatriot who had also been the final woman standing for her captain in last year's race.

"No, I was not surprised [by Van Der Breggen]," she said. "She has been strong all season. Last year she did the same great job. She was the one we wanted to have in the finale. When we were there with two and the Italians were three, we had to react to everything. She did a great job to keep it together and give me the opportunity to attack on the last climb."

Vos is known more as a punchy rider than a climber. The Fiesole climb which was repeated 5 times, is a long one that didn't suit Vos perfectly and she refused to be the strongest rider on that ascent.

"Until the last lap I didn't feel to confident," she said. "I felt good but on the long climb I wasn't the best. On the steep climb I knew I had a chance to attack. In such a situation you have to make tactical moves and it is great to have a teammate there. When I saw the sign with 1 lap to go, I thought: "This is going to be the moment.""

Vos has won world titles in track, cyclo-cross and road disciplines. This year she tried to do a few mountainbike races in a quest to one day become world champion in that discipline as well. Having already raced a few world cups, she plans to continue to push herself into the elite of the fat tire world.

"It was great to do it this year," she said. "It has been a fantastic experience to do the training and the races in the beginning of the season. I started in Cyprus and then I found out that I could do good enough to start in the world cups. I still have a lot to learn. It is not that easy to go from one bike to another. I will go on and try to find a way to combine those two disciplines."