Going for GOLD!

Here is my Olympic backblip from yesterday. These were the leading three riders in the Olympic women's road cycling race today, as they approached the River Thames in Putney, very nearly home after three and a half hours of riding. It began raining just before they arrived, hence the poor light levels, although they'd been riding in rain for much of the latter part of the race. It was a tremendously exciting moment, as this three woman breakaway had a 45 second lead over the peloton and were only 6km from the finish on the Mall near Buckingham Palace. Even more exciting, the GB team leader, Lizzy Armitstead, is leading at this point, the blurred rider on the right whizzing past me. The rider in second place is Olga Zabelinskaya of Russia who was subsequently dropped and finished in the bronze medal position. In third place is the Dutch rider Marianne Vos who, ultimately, out-sprinted Lizzy to take gold. But, at this point in the race, anything was possible and Team GB certainly had hopes of its first gold. Armitstead's silver medal was the first GB medal of any colour in the 2012 Olympics and was the well-deserved result of a really splendid, gutsy performance by her. Two of her GB team mates, Nicole Cooke and Emma Pooley, who both worked incredibly hard to contribute to Armitstead's medal position, pedalled past about a minute later, wet and splattered from the awful conditions but still riding hard. Although this isn't the best photo I've ever taken (by some margin), I think it captures the speed of road racing and is a reminder for me of the excitement of the day. Well done Lizzy Armitstead!