Huddled round a laptop in a pub in a hilly corner of West Yorkshire, lycra-clad members of Lizzie Armitstead’s cycle club cheered, whooped and groaned as their local hero ended a torrid week by missing out on an Olympic medal in Rio.
They are resolutely proud of “our Lizzie” in her hometown of Otley, whose pubs and shops were decorated with the Olympic flag and Yorkshire’s white rose as their world road cycling champion finished fifth in a dramatic end to the 137km race.
“I think she did very well. She came fifth in the world – that’s excellent,” said Jill Birch, a member of Otley cycle club, where Armitstead is patron. “Straight after the race she did a very gracious television interview considering all the media attention she’s had.”
Drinkers in The Fleece pub said it had been heartbreaking to watch Otley’s most famous daughter become involved in a doping scandal before the race of her life. But the swirl of allegations does not appear to have taken the shine off Yorkshire’s golden girl, who is fiercely supported by her many fans in the town.
Brian Keighley, the club’s 66-year-old captain, described Armitstead as “very very determined” and a “tough nut” who had taken a lot of unfair flak over the missed drugs tests. “She doesn’t need to take drugs – she’s got Yorkshire grit,” he said. “You’ve go to be quite a tough nut to ride at that very top level. She won’t let anyone push her about.”
Keighley, who joined the club in 1965 as a 15-year-old, described the doping claims as “really sad news” but added: “Lizzy is a clean athlete. She’s never failed a drugs test. This year she’s had 16 tests and been clean on them all. She’s been clean after every competition. In Rio there are athletes competing who have been banned for taking drugs and Lizzie’s getting all this flak for something she’s been cleared of. It’s completely unfair.
“Considering what she’s had to put up with, she’s done well. She’s still the champion of the world and for a young girl from our little town that’ll do for us. Incredible achievements.”
Birch described the world champion as an “inspiration” and said she never questioned her despite the three missed drugs tests. “We know Lizzie. It’s probably the worst thing [for her preparation] but we have great faith in her,” she said.
Fuelled by pints of ale, mugs of tea and complementary chips dished out for the occasion, members of Armitstead’s local cycle club wore their team colours as they watched every twist and turn of the four-hour race over an internet-streamed broadcast from Rio.
Thanks in part to Armitstead, cycling is ingrained in this small Yorkshire market town. Otley cycle club has 460 members – including Armitstead’s mother Carol – a figure that has doubled since the Tour de France zipped through it in 2014.
They start them young too: a six-year-old pedals alongside 180 other juniors, all vying to be the next Lizzie Armitstead. It boasts four national champions and three regional champions among its junior ranks, known as the “mini-flyers”. Eighty schoolchildren take cycling classes on a Friday and its waiting list grows by the day.
Otley’s mini-flyers are often spotted whizzing through the town wearing kit donated last year by Armitstead: the fit being several sizes too small for any of the adult racers.
Armitstead may have swapped her Yorkshire roots for the sunnier climes of Monaco but she will return to Otley in September to marry her fiance Philip Deignan in the town’s Bridge United Reformed church, where she went to the scout group long before she dreamed of being road cycling’s world champion.
