Armitstead gives Britain 1st Olympic medal

[July 30, 2012]  LONDON (AP) -- It wasn't gold, but it was golden.

Sure, there was nothing Elizabeth Armitstead could do to prevent big favorite Marianne Vos from sprinting away with the victory in the women's Olympic road race on Sunday. But riding full speed down The Mall in central London toward a second-place finish was a victory in itself for Armitstead -- and all of Britain.

A day after the British men failed to send ace sprinter Mark Cavendish to the gold medal he craved, Armitstead withstood torrential rain and gave the host nation its first medal of the London Games with a silver.

"It's the most special thing I've ever experienced in my life," Armitstead said.

Armitstead persevered in a breakaway after the second ascent of Box Hill in Surrey to join Olga Zabelinskaya of Russia, who won the bronze medal in the 140-kilometer (87-mile) race.

Armitstead was then overpowered by Vos in the rain-soaked sprint to the line within sight of Buckingham palace, but still couldn't hide her joy.

"I won the silver, I'm just so happy that I committed to the breakaway," said Armitstead, who only started cycling when she was 16 after trying various sports, including field hockey and football. "I was there with Marianne Vos and she's the best rider in the world on most kind of courses. She is faster than most of the girls on the circuit so I'm pretty chuffed with silver."

While the men's team couldn't find a way to counter their rivals' tactics on Saturday, the British women's aggressive strategy paid off under the torrential rain that accompanied the riders during most of the race.

There was no sign of tension on the road between Armitstead and defending Olympic champion Nicole Cooke, who fought publicly last year after the world championships when Armitstead accused Cooke of riding selfishly.

"It feels great. We came in here with a serious chance and we did it," Cooke said. "Lizzie did a fantastic ride. We were there backing her up, but she didn't need it because she was superb."

Armitstead, who teamed up with Cooke, Emma Pooley and Lucy Martin, praised the hard work of her teammates in the difficult conditions.

"I'm just very proud of the team of girls," she said. "We stick together through quite a lot. As a group of women, we all came from different teams and put on together a very good collective result."

While the rain caused several crashes and hampered the riders' vision, Armitstead said she was delighted by the poor weather conditions. Cooke's Olympic triumph four years ago in China also came in terrible weather.

"I absolutely hate racing in the heat," Armitstead said. "Last week when the heat wave came, when the others rejoiced, I was not happy about it. I've been praying for rain, particularly when we were in the breakaway and there was a real downpour. The break had more chance of working in those conditions. I couldn't see and had to take my glasses off and lost my lucky glasses, but never mind."

Armitstead's medal brought some relief to the British cycling team after Cavendish's sky-high hopes were dashed by Alexander Vionokourov's successful breakaway in the men's race.

"Obviously we were hoping, and hoping and hoping, but we're just over the moon with that," British coach Shane Sutton said. "I'm not saying we were robbed of the victory, but we performed unbelievably yesterday and the actual cycling public of Britain understand that, because cycling's become so popular they are starting to understand the tactics. All the people who lined the road realize what an epic performance as a team it was yesterday. And we didn't come up short today."

British Cycling's performance director Dave Brailsford is now hoping that Armitstead's medal will have a snowball effect on the rest of the team.

"You want to get that first medal on the board, doesn't matter what anybody says," he said. "Team GB's got its first medal on the board, gets the media off our backs, let's concentrate and get on a roll. That's what we need to do."

[Associated Press; By SAMUEL PETREQUIN]

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