First Team GB medal of the Games as cyclist Lizzie Armitstead wins silver in the women's road race

23-year-old from Otley, Yorks battled through driving rain to secure second place
Lizzie says of her silver: 'It's something very special and it hasn't sunk in yet.
She only took up cycling at 16

PUBLISHED: 16:04, 29 July 2012 | UPDATED: 20:00, 29 July 2012

First medal of the Games: Lizzie Armitstead with her Silver medal following the Women's Road Race along the Mall

Lizzie Armitstead claimed team GB's first medal today of the 2012 Olympic Games, with a silver in the women's cycling road race.

The 23-year-old endurance cyclist from Otley, Yorkshire, was part of a breakaway group in the final few km, but was pipped to the post by Dutch rider Marianne Vos who claimed the gold.

It was a pulsating 140-kilometre race, which featured two climbs of Surrey's Box Hill and finished on the Mall in the driving rain as riders battled through thunder and lightning.

Armitstead positioned herself behind the Dutchwoman entering the finishing straight but Vos was strong enough to hold off the Briton in a fight to the finish.

Russia's Olga Zabelinskaya was third after leading the breakaway pack of three.

Nicole Cooke won Britain's first gold medal of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in the event and Armitstead was seeking to emulate the success to ensure the title remained in British hands.

Cooke's victory came in teeming rain by the Great Wall of China four years ago and Armitstead's bid for victory was played out in similarly treacherous and wet conditions.

In a frantic race, with attack after attack, Armitstead was part of the late escape on the final descent after Box Hill, but prolific winner Vos was too strong.

Speaking from the finish line on The Mall, Mrs Armitstead said: 'It's something very special and it hasn't sunk in yet.

'I'm really, really happy. Maybe later I'll start thinking about that gold, but I'm happy with silver at the moment.

'It is more than we can have hoped for.'

Lizzie Armitstead tweeted thanks to fans: 'Thank you to the thousands of people cheering who literally got me to the finish line, I'm incredibly proud of GB!'

She later tweeted: 'Thank you to the thousands of people cheering who literally got me to the finish line, I'm incredibly proud of GB!

'To my friends and family who travelled from Otley, you deserve a piece of the medal! I have so many thank yous to make!

'So many people deserve a slice!'

The 23-year-old's family expressed their delight after she claimed Great Britain's first medal of London 2012.

Her mother Carol Armitstead said she was 'so proud' of her daughter, who did not get into cycling until she was 16.

Fight to the finish: Marianne Vos of The Netherlands, celebrates as beats Lizzie Armitstead over the the finish line to win the gold medal in the Women's Road Cycling race today

Tussle: Armitstead and Vos were part of a breakaway pack of three, also including Russia's Olga Zabelinskaya, who fought through the driving rain down the Mall in central London

Marianne Vos celebrates as she crosses the line on the mall, ahead of Lizzie Armitstead

Medal winners: Marianne Vos, left, of The Netherlands, center, poses for photographs with Elizabeth Armitstead, of Great Britain, and Olga Zabelinskaya, right, of Russia

Her tearful grandfather Ray Dunn added: 'I was disappointed and delighted - I knew she wanted the gold. I am tearful, I am delighted.'

Her grandmother, Marjorie Dunn, sporting a t shirt with 'I'm Lizzie's Grandma' emblazoned across the front, added: 'A granddaughter who is an Olympian is something very, very special.'

And her achivement attracted a wave of congratulatory tweets from fans and celebrities.

London Mayor Boris Johnson tweeted:
First medal for Team GB! Congratulations @L_ArmiTstead on her splendid silver in the women's Road Race.

Paula Radclifee, who was earlier forced to withdraw from the women's marathon through injury, added:
First time I smiled today was watching @L_Armitstead claim silver in the womens road race - well done!

The wet weather did not dampen the spirits of the crowds who were shouting and clapping as the Brit crossed the finish line.

Simon Ashmore and Jo Kendall, a couple from Leeds, near Armitstead's home town of Otley, said they were extremely pleased to see the moment. 'It was a fantastic atmosphere despite the rain,' said Mr Ashmore. 'People were still jolly and everyone was sharing brollies.

'We wanted to come because we knew Team GB was in the lead and we wanted to be there.'

After Mark Cavendish finished 29th on The Mall on day one, Britain's cyclists were seeking to move on from the disappointment, with Armitstead hotly tipped for a podium place.

Just two day's ago, she tweeted: 'Thank you to everybody for your support, I will give it everything I have! Every single shout counts!! See you on the other side x.'

Yorkshire lass: Lizzie Armitstead pictured on the Mall earlier this year. She took up cycling competitively in 2004 after British Cycling's Olympic Talent Team visited her school in Otley

Armitstead took up cycling competitively in 2004 after British Cycling's Olympic Talent Team visited her school, winning a silver medal in the Scratch Race at the Junior World Track Championships just a year later.

She went on to become Under 23 European Scratch Race Champion in 2007 and 2008. In 2009 she won the Under 23 category of the British National Road Race championships, and took silver in the senior category as well.

Star of track and road: Armitstead was, along with Nicole Cooke, Team GB's main rider for the race

While Cavendish was the leader for Britain in the men's race, the women's squad had options, with Cooke and Armitstead the team leaders and Emma Pooley and Lucy Martin in reserve.

Cooke has struggled for form since 2008, when she also won the world title, when Armitstead was among those riding in support. Again she struggled today as the pace increased on the first ascent of Surrey's Box Hill.

Team GB stayed vigilant negotiating the treacherous conditions on wet roads, keeping up the pace to try to keep attacks to a minimum and to reduce the contenders.

Pooley was positioned to mark every potential move as the bunch arrived at the foot of Box Hill, while riders began to lose contact as the road ramped up and the tempo increased.

On the second climb of Box Hill, Vos made her move, with Armitstead on her wheel. The main bunch followed the move before Zabelinskaya forged forward alone with 45km to go.

Vos, Armitstead and Shelley Olds of the United States bridged the gap and the quartet forged on.

Olds, though, fell back as the trio established a lead of around 20 seconds. With Zabelinskaya in the lead, followed by Vos and Armitstead in her slipstream, the trio workload and had an advantage of 40 seconds as they entered Richmond Park in the rain for the second time.

A tight right-hand turn on wet tarmac troubled the peloton and slowed their pace as the leading trio's advantage increased with 13km to go.

The peloton's deficit narrowed and last-ditch attacks began, while Pooley fell back.

Armitstead was content to sit behind Vos, marking her arch rival ahead of the sprint. But Vos had too much strength after a gruelling race and Armitstead had to be content with silver.

The cycling star who didn't pick up a bike until she was 16

As Britain's first medallist at the 2012 Olympics, Lizzie Armitstead has come a long way from the girl who used to prefer other sports.

Born in Otley, West Yorkshire, the 23-year-old took up cycling only when Team GB visited her school when she was a teenager.

Aged 15, Armitstead preferred sports like hockey, netball and football, but her PE teacher at Prince Henry's Grammar School is said to have spotted something in the teenager and invited British Cycling's Olympic Talent to come to the school.

'They set up fun and games on bikes on the school field and gave people a go," Armitstead said previously.

'They saw who they thought had potential and I was one of them,' she said, but insisted: 'I was rubbish. I was really bad.'

Since then it has not been plain sailing, but Armitstead has enjoyed a relatively meteoric rise, although her own success seems to have come as a surprise to the now-silver medallist.

'My first race that I won, I was too scared to take my hands off the handlebars and celebrate,' she is reported as saying. 'I was just so shocked that I'd won.'

It was clearly no lucky victory. Armitstead won a silver medal in the Scratch Race at the Junior World Track Championships in 2005, she was U23 European Scratch Race Champion in 2007 and 2008, and came second in the Points Race in 2007.

In 2008 she is said to have played a key role in helping fellow Briton Nicole Cooke win the World Championships road race in Varese, Italy, as Cooke became the first cyclist to take the World Championship and Olympic titles in the same year.

The following year, Armitstead was part of the Women's Team Pursuit which won gold at the World Track Championships in Warsaw, Poland, and at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010 she took silver in the road race, as well as bronze in the points race.

The 23-year-old has notched up other notable victories, including winning the first stage of Tour de l'Aude in May 2009, and winning the best young rider classification at the women's Tour of Italy.

In November that year she won the Track World Cup team pursuit in Manchester with Joanna Rowsell and Wendy Houvenaghel.

Cooke may have been the defending Olympic champion, but Armitstead was not afraid to voice her opinion.

In September 2011 she criticised Cooke for 'riding for herself' after the World Championships road race in Copenhagen.

The pair appear to have made up since then - but Armitstead found herself up there as a big name going into this year's Games.

She announced she planned to focus on road racing at London 2012 late last year, and in June was confirmed in Team GB for her first Olympics.

Writing in a blog for London's Evening Standard, she said she was expecting the news, but was again taken aback by her own reaction.

'It felt like a big weight had been lifted off my shoulders but all along I wasn't aware it had been a weight on my shoulders, if that makes any sense.'

And the weight will certainly be off her shoulders after winning Britain's first Olympic medal today.

KATCHING MY I

Pages

Sunday, 29 July 2012