LONDON — OK, the long nightmare is over for Great Britain.
Not winning a medal around here for a day or two could have easily turned into a very big deal. If three days had passed with no medals, it would have been time to assemble a Royal Commission to figure out what went wrong.
Thankfully, it was Lizzie Armitstead to the rescue.
The rain-drenched women's cycling road race came down to a furious sprint between Marianne Vos of the Netherlands and Armitstead on the Mall, and when it was over Great Britain had its first medal, a silver, of the London Olympics, ending a day and a half of doubt.
Vos held off Armitstead's charge, closing hard in the 80-mile race beset by highly difficult conditions. The Dutch cyclist actually had started out as a speed skater and won the gold medal in the points race four years ago in Beijing.
