Road Race, Women

Following Mark Cavendish’s disappointing finish far outside of the podium in the men’s road race the previous day, the host nation of the 2012 Olympics pinned its hopes on Elizabeth Armitstead to capture its first medal of the Games. She would be supported by teammates that included Nicole Cooke, who had won the 2008 Olympic road race, and Emma Pooley, a former British road race titleholder and Olympic time trial medalist. The favorite in the race, however, was considered to be Marianne Vos of the Netherlands who, among numerous other accolades, had won the Olympic Points Race four years earlier in Beijing, the last two editions of the Giro d’Italia Femminile, and silver medals in the road race at the last five World Championships (in addition to her victory at the 2006 edition). Other strong competitors were Italy’s Giorgia Bronzini, who was the World Champion in the event in 2010 and 2011, Shelley Olds of the strong United States team, and Germany’s Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, the bronze medalist from the 2011 World Championships, all of whom were thought to be capable of a powerful sprint finish. A notable absence was France’s Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli, who had appeared in every edition of the Olympic women’s road race since its inception in 1984 (a then-joint record of seven appearances for a woman) and was its champion in 1996.

London rains soaked the course before and throughout the race and helped keep the breakaways down during the first 100km. With 40 km left to go, however, an otherwise innocuous breakaway by Russian Olga Zabelinskaya turned into a serious threat when she was joined by Vos and, soon after, Armitstead and Olds. When Olds punctured a tire, the field was reduced to three and the breakaway was firmly established, the intermittent downpours now working in the leaders’ favor by keeping the rest of the pack at bay. The final moments came down to the strong sprinting powers of Vos and Armitstead and, in the end, Vos took home the gold. Armitstead’s silver finish was Britain’s first medal of the Games and was followed later in the day by a bronze from Becky Adlington in the Women’s 400 metre freestyle. Zabelinskaya finished in third for the road race bronze, following the footsteps of her father Sergey Sukhoruchenkov, who had won the men’s road race at the 1980 Summer Olympics.