Cycling at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's individual road race

The provisional start list of 67 riders was published on 23 July.{{cite web|url=http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/534042/london-2012-olympic-games-women-s-road-race-start-list.html|title=London 2012 Olympic Games: Women's road race start list|date=23 July 2012|work=cyclingweekly.co.uk}} The final start list of 66 riders{{cite web|url=http://www.london2012.com/cycling-road/event/women-road-race/phase=crw012100/index.html|title=Women's road race|work=london2012.com|access-date=28 July 2012|archive-date=5 December 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121205195557/www.london2012.com/cycling-road/event/women-road-race/phase=crw012100/index.html|url-status=dead}} was corrected by the removal of Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong to leave Hong Kong with the one place they had obtained under the qualification system, and the German team decided to replace Claudia Häusler with Charlotte Becker.{{cite web|title=BDR benennt Frauen-Aufgebot|url=http://www.sport1.de/de/olympia/olympia_sommer/newspage_591934.html|work=sport1.de|access-date=28 July 2012|language=de|date=28 July 2012|archive-date=1 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201174604/http://www.sport1.de/de/olympia/olympia_sommer/newspage_591934.html|url-status=dead}}

The race started at 12:00 British Summer Time (UTC+01:00). The weather was cool and it was very rainy. At both the start and finish of the race it was pouring down with rain. Due to the bad weather, the race saw a lot of punctures and incidents which caused riders to lose valuable time.{{cite news|title=Olympic road race: women's cycling – as it happened|url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/jul/29/olympic-road-race-womens-cycling-live|work=The Guardian|location=London|access-date=8 September 2012|date=29 July 2012}}

After an unsuccessful attack from Janildes Silva Fernandes, Ellen van Dijk attacked after around 35 kilometres. A couple of other riders joined Van Dijk in her escape but the efforts were not successful, as the escapees were caught by the group. A few minutes later, Ellen van Dijk attacked again in an attempt to splinter the peloton but was soon reeled in again. After two short bursts from Ellen van Dijk and one from Loes Gunnewijk, the American Kristin Armstrong attacked on the climb of Box Hill, followed by Great Britain's Emma Pooley. When the bunch was back together, race favourite Marianne Vos attacked but was immediately followed by America's Shelley Olds and the bunch. After other attacks from Ellen van Dijk, Judith Arndt, Emma Pooley and Ellen van Dijk respectively, the bunch contained about 35 riders with 50 kilometers to go. At the beginning of the second of the two rounds of Box Hill, Marianne Vos attacked the bunch, joined by Lizzie Armitstead and the Belarus rider Alena Amialiusik but were unable to get away. After the descent of Box Hill there was a clear escape of Marianne Vos, Olga Zabelinskya, Lizzie Armitstead and Shelley Olds, who quickly made a gap of half a minute between themselves and the chasing posse. After a puncture of Shelley Olds the three remaining riders increased the distance between them and their pursuers to 48 seconds with 10 kilometres to go. After Zabelinskaya tried unsuccessful to escape with 2 kilometres to go, it was Vos who sprinted for the finish with about 200 metres to go. Armitstead tried to get after her but failed to do so and was beaten by a bike-length.

In the table below, "s.t." indicates that the rider crossed the finish line in the same group as the cyclist before her, and was therefore credited with the same finishing time.

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;Over time limit (OTL)

:Under UCI regulations for one-day road races (article 2.3.039), "Any rider finishing in a time exceeding that of the winner by more than 5% shall not be placed".{{citation|pages=31| url=http://www.uci.ch/includes/asp/getTarget.asp?type=FILE&id=34028| publication-date=1 February 2012|title=UCI Cycling Regulations, Part II: Road Races| publisher=UCI}} Applying this to the winning time of Marianne Vos resulted in a time limit of 3:46:15.

File:The Dutch Team before the women's road race at the 2012 Summer Olympics (cropped).JPG|The Dutch Team (Loes Gunnewijk, Ellen van Dijk, Annemiek van Vleuten and Marianne Vos) before the race

File:Womens Olympic Road Race Peleton - July 2012.jpg|The peloton in southwest London, near the beginning of the women's road race

File:Womensbikerace2012.JPG|The peloton through Abinger Hammer

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• [http://www.london2012.com/cycling-road/event/women-road-race/index.html Women's Road Race] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121205024059/www.london2012.com/cycling-road/event/women-road-race/index.html |date=5 December 2012 }} at the London 2012 website

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Women's road race

Category:2012 in women's road cycling

Category:Cycling at the Summer Olympics – Women's road race

Category:Women's events at the 2012 Summer Olympics

2012 Women's Cycling