With a little help from her friends and more than a year's planning, Britain's Nicole Cooke delivered the big prize yesterday - an Olympic gold medal.

"Our plan went back more than 12 months in terms of what we were going to do today," an ebullient Cooke, 25, said after winning the women's 126-km Olympic road race.

"Sharon (Laws), Emma (Pooley) and I were all part of a team and we all knew we were good riders but the best chance we had was to ride together... and try to win as a team," she said. "Riding as a team was the best way to be successful."

With the British women riding consistently at the front of the pack throughout the race, Pooley launched an attack on the second and final lap of a 24-km circuit at the Great Wall.

The attack caught Russian Natalia Boyarskaya and set Cooke up to join another attack group just a few kilometres from the finish.

Cooke then launched a fierce sprint for the last hundred metres and narrowly edged out Sweden's Emma Johansson, who took the silver, and Tatiana Guderzo of Italy, who finished third.

"Everything went according to plan," Laws said. "We're very pleased."

Britain's coach, Dave Brailsford, said: "It wasn't just her. The whole team got it spot on."

Cooke seemed so surprised with her own accomplishment that she let out a huge scream, similar to a war whoop, after she crossed the finish line.

"I was just so happy and there were so many emotions that were coming out all at once that I probably wasn't composed enough to take my hands off the bars and do a salute that way," she said with a laugh when asked to explain the scream.

"I just made so much noise because I guess that's just the person I am."