The world's best women's cyclists made the most of poor weather and tricky conditions as they raced through the Hadleigh and Bildeston area after setting off from Colchester this morning.

The slippery conditions meant a number of riders crashed, including in the final kilometre when a cyclist slipped and took other riders with her.

A police outrider was taken to hospital after being involved in a collision, to involving any of the racers. The race was delayed for an hour for safety reasons while an ambulance took the officer for medical treatment, but he was later released.

Dutch racer Maike der van Duin, from team La Col Wahoo took maximum points in the sprint as she whizzed past the post on Hadleigh High Street

Tackling the Queen of the Mountain at Bildeston (Picture credit: Ian Evans Nub News)

Luxembourg rider Christine Majerus won the Queen of the Mountain title after finishing first up the hill in Bildeston in front of an appreciative and knowledgable crowd,

Frenchwoman Clara Copponi claimed the first victory of her road racing career as she sprinted to win the opening stage of the Women's Tour in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

The FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope rider pipped Italian duo Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ) and Elena Cecchini (Team SD Worx) to the line in a reduced bunch sprint after a final-kilometre crash removed pre-stage favourite Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) out of contention.

Copponi, a reigning world champion on the track, claimed the first yellow leader's jersey of this year's race as a result of her victory. Having finished third overall in last year's Women's Tour, she also leads the Breast Cancer Now going into stage two.

Hundreds of people lined the route which was well policed and marshalled so disruption on the roads was in the main kept to a minimum, apart from the incident with the police rider.

Police outriders for race (Picture credit Nub News)