How Lizzie Armitstead learned to ride a bike - by her dad in Otley

A delighted John Armitstead joked that his 23-year-old daughter had taken to cycling “pretty well” following her silver medal in the women’s road race.

Asked in a TV interview if he remembered teaching his daughter how to cycle, Mr Armitstead said: “You have got to do it on the grass so it is a soft landing. She was the third one we taught, so we had mastered it a bit by then.

“I am sure she took to it pretty well.”

The cyclist’s family watched her zoom over the finish line from one of the small podiums erected on The Mall.

Mr Armitstead said they had every confidence that their daughter would win a medal.

“You daren’t tempt fate, you have got to be realistic but at the back of our minds, yes, we were hoping she would be up there,” he added.

Armitstead’s mother Carol, also appearing on ITV Daybreak, said their daughter had received “100%” backing from their large family.

The cyclist, from Otley, near Leeds, was beaten to victory yesterday at the end of a pulsating 87-mile (140km) race by Dutch Marianne Vos.

She said afterwards: “I’m really, really happy. Maybe later I’ll start thinking about that gold, but I’m happy with silver at the moment.

“In retrospect I should’ve tried to jump Marianne, but she’s the fastest and I’m happy enough with silver.”

On the first British podium place of London 2012, she said: “It’s something very special and it hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Video: Lizzie Armitstead puts Otley schoolkids through their paces