Lizzie Armitstead won silver to claim Great Britain's first medal of London 2012 in the women's road race as Holland's Marianne Vos took gold on The Mall.

 Armitstead was beaten to victory at the end of a pulsating 140-kilometre race, which featured two climbs of Surrey’s Box Hill.

 With the peloton cast adrift, the 23-year-old from Otley near Leeds, was in line for Britain's first medal of the home Games, but the question remained which colour.

 Armitstead positioned herself behind the Dutchwoman entering the finishing straight but Vos was strong enough to hold off the Briton, who had to settle for second.

 Russia's Olga Zabelinskaya was third.