London 2012 Olympics: We’ll be ready for anything, say GB’s women road racers

Defending champion Nicole Cooke, along with Lizzie Armitstead, Emma Pooley and Lucy Martin will be seeking success on the 140-kilometre (87-mile) course, which starts and finishes on The Mall and  features two climbs of Box Hill.

Their male counterparts competed in the test event last August, but Armitstead and Martin had to settle for a seat in a following car and are still to assess the closing kilometres without traffic.

Holland, for whom Marianne Vos is one of the favourites, attempted to beat the traffic with an early start ahead of the test event.

Armitstead said: “We didn’t get up early, the Dutch did. We rode it the day before [the test event], the bits that we could out of traffic.

“But I’m so often in the final of a race where I don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like. It’s something you get used to as a cyclist.”

Armitstead and Cooke are Britain’s main options for success, but the pressure is on Vos. It is a situation Britain could look to exploit.

“At major competitions everyone’s watching Marianne Vos, which means if there is a late breakaway, everyone is going to look to Marianne to close it,” Armitstead said.

“The pressure is on the Dutch team, which is a nice position for us to be in.

“We’re certainly not going to shape our race around them, but we can use them a little bit.”

The race is challenging to predict and control, with Britain deploying six “spotters” to relay tactical information to the riders during the race.

“We could have five plans and none of them might work, because you don’t know what the other teams are going to do,” Pooley said.

It means much of the race must take place using instinct and experience.

“You plot and plan and then do it on the bike,” Cooke said.

“The first time we saw the course the plans were forming; you get a feel of what might happen and you talk through ideas.

“It’s a very continuous process.”

Cooke has the experience, while Armitstead is proven too, having won World Championship medals on the track in the points and scratch races.

Pooley played an integral role in Cooke’s triumph by the Great Wall of China four years ago and is seeking to do so again.

She will be required to counter-attack to support her team but is concerned her response to rivals changing gears before accelerating will be hampered by the noise generated from an anticipated bumper roadside crowd.

Pooley said: “[When] there are so many people it’s really loud. Normally your hearing is an important factor in a race. You can hear someone attacking – click, click, click, bang.”

Armitstead, Pooley and Martin compete for the same professional team, AA Drink-leontien.nl.

Cooke rides for Faren-Honda and was the subject of a public disagreement with Armitstead after last September’s World Championships.

Both insist the incident is now behind them and the team will be united.

“Every major championships I’ve ever ridden, Nicole’s been there as well,” Armitstead said.

“I feel that I know enough about Nicole, Nicole’s body language and the way she races, it’s not like I feel like I’m racing with someone new.

“It’s a case of being able to, with one look, express how you’re feeling and I think we can all do that.”

As well as Vos, Italy’s Giorgia Bronzini is highly fancied to succeed. Bronzini beat Vos to gold at the World Championships in Copenhagen.

Shelley Olds of the United States is also a potential winner.

Olds said: “We are not afraid of any situation. We have the riders for any situation, for a breakaway, for a sprint, for a small group or a big group.

“I’m confident if we go into it as a team we can win.

“I don’t know what will happen in the race, but we have a lot of cards to play. We have the strongest team. I would be happy if it came to a sprint.”