Armitstead’s silver success puts Britain on Olympic medal trail

The 23-year-old claimed silver in cycling’s women’s road race behind experienced Dutch rider Marianne Vos.

Armitstead described the achievement as a “dream” as she sprinted over the finish line at The Mall to belatedly get Britain’s medal campaign underway.

“Winning this medal in front of my family and friends is the most special thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. It’s so crazy and so inspiring,” she said. “It’s a strange feeling. It was just like a dream. It’s something you’ve worked towards for years and it’s over in a flash.”

Armitstead has been a rising star of British women’s cycling since her PE teacher at Prince Henry’s Grammar School is said to have spotted something in the 15-year-old and invited British Cycling’s Olympic Talent programme to come and take a look.

A willing participant in all sports, she decided on a career in cycling after winning silver at the junior track world championships in 2005.

“That was the turning point,” said Armitstead yesterday. “It was a shock to me but I decided then to take the sport seriously.

“I could have gone to university but I decided to take advantage of cycling and forge a career in the sport.”

Armitstead helped Nicole Cooke win the world road race title in 2008 and a year later won gold at the world track championships in the team pursuit.

Brilliant in both crafts, she opted to focus on the road late last year, and that decision was vindicated magnificently yesterday.

In heavy rain, Armitstead was one of four riders who broke away from the pack on the second and final descent of Box Hill.

Her British team-mates, Cooke, Lucy Martin and in particular Emma Pooley worked tirelessly for her and she repaid their sacrifice by sticking with Vos and Russia’s Olga Zabelinskaya after Shelley Olds had punctured.

“I’m so glad I committed to that break,” said Armitstead. “I was umming and aahing but I’m really happy I went with it.

“Our plan was to be reactive rather than proactive. I had to make the call to Emma to attack or not. We wanted a select group at the end. We discussed things beforehand about the fast roads coming in to the finish and we thought that once you get a committed break up front it makes it hard at the back. I just went with it and I’m so happy it came off.

“I should’ve jumped earlier in the sprint, but never mind. Marianne’s fast and I’m chuffed with silver.

“It feels fantastic. I’m just very proud of the team of girls that we stuck together.

“As a group we all came together from different teams and produced a great result. The work the girls put in deserves a medal.”

The often torrential rain added intrigue to a fascinating race, and was warmly welcomed by Armitstead and the British team.

Cooke won Britain’s first gold of the Beijing Games through heavy downpours on the Great Wall of China four years ago.

And Armitstead, who relishes riding in the elements on the country roads around her home in Otley, said: “I had been praying for rain all week.

“When we were in the breakaway there was a real downpour.

“I hate racing in the heat. Last week when the heatwave came I wasn’t too happy.

“The harsher the conditions the better for me.”

Armitstead was cheered to her silver medal at the end of the gruelling 140km race by a large following of family and friends who had descended on the capital from West Yorkshire.

They were among nearly a million people who lined the route, just as they had done 24 hours earlier as Britain’s high-profile men’s team failed to guide world champion Mark Cavendish to victory.

On that occasion, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, David Millar and Ian Stannard ran out of steam as they fought a lone battle to close down a breakaway that included eventual winner Alexander Vinokourov, 38, of Kazakhstan.

The fact that Vinokourov has served bans in the past for blood doping merely soured the taste in the mouth following the anti-climax of Saturday’s race.

The recent rise to prominence of British Cycling has helped to paper over the sport’s mirky history, but it is not the issue of drugs misuse that Armitstead plans to use her new-found fame to crusade against.

Her principal fight will be against sexism in not only cycling but across sport.

And she will hope her achievement yesterday will help bridge the gap between men’s and women’s cycling.

The men have the iconic Tour de France while the triumphant Team Sky do not have a women’s team. Armitstead rides professionally on the low-profile women’s tour for a Dutch team.

“It’s a big issue in women’s cycling,” she said in her press conference, moments after collecting her medal on The Mall.

“There’s lots of things that could be done. We could do with getting more help from the UCI, forcing pro teams, for instance, to have an equivalent women’s team.

“If sports join together in a common stance it’s something we can work towards.”

That is a fight for the future for Lizzie Armitstead.

For now and for ever she can bask in the glory of being an Olympic silver medallist.