Team GB cycling silver for Lizzie Armitstead
Lizzie Armitstead becomes the first British medallist at London 2012, pipped for Olympic gold in the women’s cycling road race by the favourite, Marianne Vos of Holland.
“She was the one to watch, and I knew that before the race,” Lizzie Armitstead admitted after the race was over.
Armitstead later acknowledged: “I’m really, really happy. Maybe later I’ll start thinking about that gold, but I’m happy with silver at the moment.
“I was thinking about trying to play poker in the final, and I sat on with about 3k to go and I thought that was my best chance – and it came off.
Maybe later I’ll start thinking about that gold, but I’m happy with silver at the moment. Lizzie Armitstead
“In retrospect I should have tried to jump Marianne, but she’s the fastest and I’m happy enough with silver.”
The Team GB cyclist thanked spectators for their support, which she said had been “fantastic”.
Marianne Vos also complimented the crowds, saying she had been confronted by a “wall of noise” as she entered the Mall in central London.
She is widely regarded as the best female finisher in road cycling. But she will have had her five successive World Championship failures at the back of her mind before sealing her first global road race title for six years.
Russia’s Olga Zabalinskaya finished third.
Destined for disappointment
Defending champion Nicole Cooke, who won in teeming rain by the Great Wall of China four years ago, was destined for disappointment in the 2012 race, as were other Team GB members Emma Pooley and Lucy Martin. But Cooke complimented team-mate Armitstead on her “great ride” in London.
After Mark Cavendish finished 29th on the Mall on day one of the London Games, Britain was seeking to move on from the disappointment in a route which features two ascents of Surrey’s Box Hill.
Armitstead and Cooke had a public fall-out after last September’s World Championships, when Armitstead was nominated team leader but accused Cooke of riding “for herself” after a disappointing result. Cooke finished fourth.
But in the lead-up to London 2012, the duo insisted the incident and comments were behind them and that they were united in the goal of Britain retaining the Olympic title.