MTC

Lizzie Armitstead is widely regarded as the future of British cycling, being tipped by many to take on the mantle and continue the extraordinary standards set by the current crop of stars.

A supremely talented cyclist on both the track and the road, Lizzie has already enjoyed success in both formats. At the 2009 World Track Championships in Poland, Lizzie completed a full house of medals winning the Gold medal in the Team Pursuit, a Silver medal in the Scratch and a Bronze medal in the Points race. Later the same year, Lizzie's form transgressed to the road as she wore the white jersey as the year's best young rider in the prestigious Giro d'Italia, firmly establishing herself as one of the world's leading cyclists in both formats.

Lizzie, who already had seven World Cup victories to her name, also clinched the overall titles in the team pursuit and scratch with victories in each discipline in the Copenhagen Track World Cup event taking her tally to an unprecedented nine Gold medals in the World Cup series. She claimed a hat-trick of Gold medals at the Manchester leg of the 2008 world cup series and claimed Gold medals in both the Team Pursuit and the Scratch race at the 2008 European Championships, which were also held in Poland. Further to this, Lizzie was also part of the team which helped Nicole Cooke to claim the World Championship Gold medal on the road.

In 2010 Lizzie added another two World Championship silver medals to her already impressive track cycling collection and followed this up when representing England at the Commonwealth Games in Dehi, she brought home the silver medal fractionally missing the gold in the women's road race. Her performance in Delhi, where she overcame the testing climate conditions, further highlighted that the immediate future is looking very bright for one of the most exceptional talents in the world of cycling.

Her road cycling career continued to blossom as she joined the Cervélo Test Team and fulfilled a lifetime goal by winning a stage of the Tour de l'Aude. Lizzie then joined the Garmin Cervélo Team and went from strength to strength as she followed up her Tour de l'Aude stage win with another four stage victories, including a hat-trick of wins on the Tour de l'Ardeche where she was crowned the best young rider for the second time of the season after also receiving the accolade at La Route de France.

2011 has seen Lizzie continue to impress on the road with victories in Tour of Chongming Island; stage one, the Thüringen Rundfahrt; stage six and the Thüringen Rundfahrt; points classification. The highlight of the 2011 season came when Lizzie sprinted away from a strong field to become the National Road Race Champion. Heading to the World Championships in Denmark as one of the favourites, Lizzie was well placed to take the title but an unfortunate mix up occurred which resulted in Lizzie being boxed in with no way to exit the melee and had to settle for a seventh placed finish.

The 2011 British Track Championships came a week after the frustration of the World Road Championships and Lizzie once again proved that she is going to be one to watch at London 2012 by powering away from the field to become the National Champion in the points and scratch disciplines.

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