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July 30th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda - 23-year-old from Otley, Yorks battled through driving rain to secure second place
- Miss Armitstead says of her silver: ‘It’s something very special and it hasn’t sunk in yet.’
By
Damien Gayle
10:04 EST, 29 July 2012
|
04:42 EST, 30 July 2012
First medal of the Games: Lizzie Armitstead with her Silver medal following the Women’s Road Race along the Mall
Britain’s first medal winner was always supposed to be a cyclist – just not this one.
After Mark Cavendish’s shock defeat on Saturday, it became Lizzie Armitstead who answered the nation’s Olympic prayers instead.
The 23-year-old road cyclist won silver after a magnificent sprint finish in the pouring rain.
She was just beaten to the gold by the Netherlands’ Marianne Vos as they crossed the line on The Mall yesterday.
Afterwards, a beaming Miss Armitstead said she had ‘definitely won the silver’ rather than lost the gold.
‘I am pretty chuffed,’ she said. ‘I feel incredible, really, really happy. Hopefully I have got the GB ball rolling now.’
The cycling star was given her first bike for Christmas at the age of four, and as a child she was ‘into everything’.
By the time she was eight, she was competing in triathlon races, which include cycling, running and swimming.
After winning the girls’ race, she moved on to the boys’ race the following year and came first – reducing at least one embarrassed rival to tears.
But her achievement yesterday is all the more impressive given that she became serious about cycling only eight years ago, when she was talent-spotted while at Prince Henry’s Grammar School in Otley, West Yorkshire.
She said: ‘I was the girl on every single school team, even the blooming football team. I was put in goal and I lost the big tournaments letting goals in.
‘I was never fantastic at anything until cycling came along. It was the sport that found me.’
Scroll down to see Lizzie interviewed after the race
Miss Armitstead, left, exhausted, after finishing in the rain yesterday and right, aged four, on her first bike
A staunch vegetarian, she said she stopped eating meat 13 years ago because ‘I could never get my head around eating a corpse’.
She added that she would have done it
sooner but ‘my parents used to force me to eat everything on my plate
until I was about ten.’
She was raised by Carol, 53, a teacher and John, an accountant, and has two older siblings, Nick, 27, and Kate, 30.
After three weeks away from her family, she admitted she could not wait to see them, saying: ‘We have spoken on the phone.
They are loving it – they have been offered champagne dinners and all sorts. They are having a right time.’
Her father joked this morning that Lizzie had taken ‘pretty well to cycling’ as a child.
He said on ITV’s Daybreak programme: ‘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.’
Mr Armitstead added that 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.’
The brunette is dating fellow cyclist
Adam Blythe, but that did not stop the late Sir Jimmy Saville proposing
to her when they met a year before his death. She said previously: ‘We
were at the Dave Rayner dinner, an annual charity event, when he popped
the question. I’m sorry to say I turned him down.’
Lizzie Armitstead tweeted thanks to fans: ‘Thank you to the thousands of people cheering who literally got me to the finish line, I’m incredibly proud of GB!’
Fight to the finish: Marianne Vos of The Netherlands, celebrates as beats Lizzie Armitstead over the the finish line to win the gold medal in the Women’s Road Cycling race today
Tussle: Armitstead and Vos were part of a breakaway pack of three, also including Russia’s Olga Zabelinskaya, who fought through the driving rain down the Mall in central London
Miss Armitstead had previously had a
high-profile spat with fellow rider Nicole Cooke, but yesterday she
credited her and her other team-mates for helping her to win, saying
they ‘did exactly what they were asked and I can’t thank them enough’.
She also used her victory as an opportunity to launch an attack against sexism in the sport.
‘It’s something that as an elite
athlete you just get used to,’ she said. ‘At the moment there’s not much
I can do to change it but after my career I hope to.’
Yesterday’s race was a
pulsating 140-kilometre battled, which featured two climbs of Surrey’s
Box Hill and finished on the Mall in the driving rain as riders battled
through thunder and lightning.
Armitstead positioned herself behind
the Dutchwoman entering the finishing straight but Vos was strong enough
to hold off the Briton in a fight to the finish.
Russia’s Olga Zabelinskaya was third after leading the breakaway pack of three.
Nicole
Cooke won Britain’s first gold medal of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in
the event and Armitstead was seeking to emulate the success to ensure
the title remained in British hands.
Cooke’s
victory came in teeming rain by the Great Wall of China four years ago
and Armitstead’s bid for victory was played out in similarly treacherous
and wet conditions.
Marianne Vos celebrates as she crosses the line on the mall, ahead of Lizzie Armitstead
Medal winners: Marianne Vos, left, of The Netherlands, center, poses for photographs with Elizabeth Armitstead, of Great Britain, and Olga Zabelinskaya, right, of Russia
In a
frantic race, with attack after attack, Armitstead was part of the late
escape on the final descent after Box Hill, but prolific winner Vos was
too strong.
The silver medal winner later
tweeted: ‘Thank you to the thousands of people cheering who literally
got me to the finish line, I’m incredibly proud of GB!
‘To my friends and family who travelled from Otley, you deserve a piece of the medal! I have so many thank yous to make!
‘So many people deserve a slice!’
The 23-year-old’s family expressed their delight after she claimed Great Britain’s first medal of London 2012.
Her mother Carol Armitstead said she was ‘so proud’ of her daughter.
Her
tearful grandfather Ray Dunn added: ‘I was disappointed and delighted –
I knew she wanted the gold. I am tearful, I am delighted.’
Her
grandmother, Marjorie Dunn, sporting a t shirt with ‘I’m Lizzie’s
Grandma’ emblazoned across the front, added: ‘A granddaughter who is an
Olympian is something very, very special.’
And her achievement attracted a wave of congratulatory tweets from fans and celebrities.
London Mayor Boris Johnson tweeted:
First medal for Team GB! Congratulations @L_ArmiTstead on her splendid silver in the women’s Road Race.
Paula Radclifee, who was earlier forced to withdraw from the women’s marathon through injury, added: First time I smiled today was watching @L_Armitstead claim silver in the womens road race – well done!
Stella McCartney also tweeted her congratulations, writing: ‘Lizzie, I watched you take it all the way and I am so proud and impressed, silver for GB! Congrats!! X.’
The wet weather did not dampen the spirits of the crowds
who were shouting and clapping as the Brit crossed the finish line.
Simon Ashmore and Jo Kendall, a couple from Leeds, near Armitstead’s home town of Otley, said they were extremely pleased to see the moment. ‘It was a fantastic atmosphere despite the rain,’ said Mr Ashmore. ‘People were still jolly and everyone was sharing brollies.
‘We wanted to come because we knew Team GB was in the lead and we wanted to be there.’
After Mark Cavendish finished 29th on
The Mall on day one, Britain’s cyclists were seeking to move on from
the disappointment, with Armitstead hotly tipped for a podium place.
Just two day’s ago, she tweeted: ‘Thank
you to everybody for your support, I will give it everything I have!
Every single shout counts!! See you on the other side x.’
Yorkshire lass: Lizzie Armitstead pictured on the Mall earlier this year. She took up cycling competitively in 2004 after British Cycling’s Olympic Talent Team visited her school in Otley
Armitstead took up cycling competitively in 2004 after British Cycling’s Olympic Talent Team visited her school, winning a silver medal in the Scratch Race at the Junior World Track Championships just a year later.
She went on to become Under 23 European Scratch Race Champion in 2007 and 2008. In 2009 she won the Under 23 category of the British National Road Race championships, and took silver in the senior category as well.
Star of track and road: Armitstead was, along with Nicole Cooke, Team GB’s main rider for the race
While Cavendish was the leader for
Britain in the men’s race, the women’s squad had options, with Cooke and
Armitstead the team leaders and Emma Pooley and Lucy Martin in reserve.
Cooke has struggled for form since 2008, when she also won the world title, when Armitstead was among those riding in support. Again she struggled today as the pace increased on the first ascent of Surrey’s Box Hill.
Team GB stayed vigilant negotiating the treacherous conditions on wet roads, keeping up the pace to try to keep attacks to a minimum and to reduce the contenders.
Pooley was positioned to mark every potential move as the bunch arrived at the foot of Box Hill, while riders began to lose contact as the road ramped up and the tempo increased.
On the second climb of Box Hill, Vos made her move, with Armitstead on her wheel. The main bunch followed the move before Zabelinskaya forged forward alone with 45km to go.
Vos, Armitstead and Shelley Olds of the United States bridged the gap and the quartet forged on.
Olds, though, fell back as the trio established a lead of around 20 seconds. With Zabelinskaya in the lead, followed by Vos and Armitstead in her slipstream, the trio workload and had an advantage of 40 seconds as they entered Richmond Park in the rain for the second time.
A tight right-hand turn on wet tarmac troubled the peloton and slowed their pace as the leading trio’s advantage increased with 13km to go.
The peloton’s deficit narrowed and last-ditch attacks began, while Pooley fell back.
Armitstead was content to sit behind Vos, marking her arch rival ahead of the sprint. But Vos had too much strength after a gruelling race and Armitstead had to be content with silver.
The cycling star who didn’t pick up a bike until she was 16
As Britain’s first medallist at the 2012 Olympics, Lizzie Armitstead has come a long way from the girl who used to prefer other sports.
Born in Otley, West Yorkshire, the 23-year-old took up cycling only when Team GB visited her school when she was a teenager.
‘My first race that I won, I was too
scared to take my hands off the handlebars and celebrate,’ she is
reported as saying. ‘I was just so shocked that I’d won’
Aged 15, Armitstead preferred sports like hockey, netball and football, but her PE teacher at Prince Henry’s Grammar School is said to have spotted something in the teenager and invited British Cycling’s Olympic Talent to come to the school.
‘They set up fun and games on bikes on the school field and gave people a go,” Armitstead said previously.
‘They saw who they thought had potential and I was one of them,’ she said, but insisted: ‘I was rubbish. I was really bad.’
Since then it has not been plain sailing, but Armitstead has enjoyed a relatively meteoric rise, although her own success seems to have come as a surprise to the now-silver medallist.
‘My first race that I won, I was too scared to take my hands off the handlebars and celebrate,’ she is reported as saying. ‘I was just so shocked that I’d won.’
It was clearly no lucky victory. Armitstead won a silver medal in the Scratch Race at the Junior World Track Championships in 2005, she was U23 European Scratch Race Champion in 2007 and 2008, and came second in the Points Race in 2007.
Her celebrity fans took to twitter
London Mayor Boris Johnson tweeted:
First medal for Team GB! Congratulations @L_ArmiTstead on her splendid silver in the women’s Road Race.
Paula
Radclifee, who was earlier forced to withdraw from the women’s marathon
through injury, added:
First time I smiled today was watching
@L_Armitstead claim silver in the womens road race – well done!
Stella
McCartney also tweeted her congratulations, writing:
‘Lizzie, I watched
you take it all the way and I am so proud and impressed, silver for GB!
Congrats!! X.’
In 2008 she is said to have played a key role in helping fellow Briton Nicole Cooke win the World Championships road race in Varese, Italy, as Cooke became the first cyclist to take the World Championship and Olympic titles in the same year.
The following year, Armitstead was part of the Women’s Team Pursuit which won gold at the World Track Championships in Warsaw, Poland, and at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010 she took silver in the road race, as well as bronze in the points race.
The 23-year-old has notched up other notable victories, including winning the first stage of Tour de l’Aude in May 2009, and winning the best young rider classification at the women’s Tour of Italy.
In November that year she won the Track World Cup team pursuit in Manchester with Joanna Rowsell and Wendy Houvenaghel.
Cooke may have been the defending Olympic champion, but Armitstead was not afraid to voice her opinion.
In September 2011 she criticised Cooke for ‘riding for herself’ after the World Championships road race in Copenhagen.
The pair appear to have made up since then – but Armitstead found herself up there as a big name going into this year’s Games.
She announced she planned to focus on road racing at London 2012 late last year, and in June was confirmed in Team GB for her first Olympics.
Writing in a blog for London’s Evening Standard, she said she was expecting the news, but was again taken aback by her own reaction.
‘It felt like a big weight had been lifted off my shoulders but all along I wasn’t aware it had been a weight on my shoulders, if that makes any sense.’
And the weight will certainly be off her shoulders after winning Britain’s first Olympic medal today.
VIDEO: It was the best day of my life. Lizzie glows with pride following the silver medal win
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Wonderful event and drama right up to the final seconds, in the pouring rain, a women showed that she has the stamina,guile and bravery to go for it and win an Olympic medal is awesome and anyone who thinks any different
probably has never entered any type of sports event in their lives and do not appreciate the hours of hard work they put into this sport especially on some of our roads with the most selfish drivers.
And what about those hundreds of Olympians with Gold medals who in the past took drugs, they are to be applauded for coming 1st?? True sportsmanship is always the victor.
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Contradictions on when she started cycling… 16 or 4 DM? Great result representing beautiful Yorkshire!
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Look at the kill-joys on here! Only to be expected though as some people are so narrow minded and spiteful. The bottom line is this girl has shown complete dedication to her sport over many years and HUGE congratulations to Lizzie – you did us proud girl.
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“it when she deliberately kept giving way to the others.” John Ball, Stourbridge, Go and look up how cycling such a long race works being blaming left-wing teaching, being at the front is hard compared to slip streaming someone, it was a benefit to the front group to take it in turns being in front so the main group do not catch up. It’s only at the end will they stop working together and try and win.
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Well done to Englands Lizzie! A fine achievement young lady.
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The 23-year-old road cyclist won silver after a magnificent sprint finish in the pouring rain.
Well done to the British rider but can you WIN silver?
There’s only one winner and that’s the first person across the line.
You can be awarded silver or bronze but you can’t win either.
To win something you must be first in anything.
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It’s only silver. Yet as a nation you are willing to accept 2nd best. Shameful.
– Heinrich, Bonn, West Germany, 29/07/2012 21:07
Hang on your lot came 2nd in 1918 and 1945 and you accepted that with no problem
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I watched the entire race this morning. the last 10 mins was electric and the smile on Lizzie’s face as she crossed the line, which is captured so well in this article’s picture, will always be an indication to me of the pleasure of a wonderful achievment at the Olympics.
Pat Dowling (ex-pat)
Edmonton
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Please ignore Heinrich from Bonn, guy is obviously a wind up merchant looking for a reaction. West Germany ceased to exist over 20 years ago. Well done Lizzie.
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Dedication + disciple = results. Congratulations.
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