Rochelle Gilmore wins women’s road race at the Games
Rochelle Gilmore followed in the footsteps of the Australia track cycling by continuing her country’s domination of cycling at the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games. Sunday held the men’s and women’s road race competitions, won by Allan Davis and Gilmore
respectively. The two road-race gold medals are added to Australia’s tally of 12 out of 14 golds on the track.
"I just stayed out of trouble," said Gilmore. "I was more conscious of beating the people in front of me than those behind me."
The sprinter waited for the last moments to overtake Lizzie Armistead of England and relegate her countrywoman Chloe Hosking to the bronze medal position. A dirt-covered Gilmore crossed the finished line at the head of a 16-woman bunch sprint which included
the pre-race favourite and defending champion Nicole Cooke of Wales. Two other favourites Linda Villumsen and Cath Cheatley failed to make it into the lead group, worn out from both attempting failed breakaways. Armitstead was a strong favourite herself, but
not strong enough.
"I just felt like I let the girls down a little bit," said Armitstead to the BBC. "They did a really good job today. It was our first try at a lead out and they had to do a little bit too much too soon and I waited a little bit. I hesitated, because I wanted
the job to get done right until the line. I should have made the split decision to get on a wheel instead because they'd just done too much.”
Armitstead said she lost her race on a late final sprint. The English cyclist won the sprint competition and three stages at the Tour de l’Ardeche this season, took the silver medal at the Road World Championships and at the British National Championships
finished in first in the Under-23 race and second in the Elite race. She came to New Delhi with a strong line-up for the English women’s team, in contrast to the men’s team which has seen most of their riders cancel their plans to compete.
"They did a perfect job, we could have just done with the line being a bit closer. But for our first attempt as a team – we've not even tried it in training – I'm really impressed and I think we can only get better. Come London we should be a forced to
be reckoned with."
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