In a wet and wild Beijing, Nicole Cooke out-sprinted her rivals to claim Britain’s first Olympic Gold. As rain lashed the same course the men rode yesterday, the riders faced two laps of the mountain course around the Great Wall.

On the first lap Cooke, Johnasson, Guderzo, Soeder and Villumsen Serup broke away from the bunch and managed to stay clear of the chasers. Pre-race favourite Marianne Vos was isolated among the chase group and couldn’t catch the escapees who fought out a three way sprint for the line, won by Cooke who led the whole way. This was the 200th Gold medal for Great Britain and a great result for British cycling, which will hopefully keep the sport in the headlines and of interest for some time to come.

1 Nicole Cooke (Great Britain)                    3.32.24 (35.706km/h)
2 Emma Johansson (Sweden)
3 Tatiana Guderzo (Italy)
4 Christiane Soeder (Austria)                        0.04
5 Linda Villumsen Serup (Denmark)                    0.09
6 Marianne Vos (Netherlands)                         0.21