London 2012 Olympics: Team GB Silver Medalist Lizzie Armitstead Welcomed Home To Otley

'Whole Town' Turns Out To Welcome Home First Member Of Team GB To Win Medal

Cycling champion Lizzie Armitstead, the first member of Team GB to win a medal at London 2012 has been welcomed home by what appeared to be the whole population of the quiet market town where she lives.

Olympic road race silver medallist Lizzie Armitstead was given the full open top bus tour of Otley, in West Yorkshire, as hundreds waved flags and cheered in the Market Place.

Lizzie Armitstead holds her silver medal, the first of 29 for Team GB

A thunderstorm turned the town's streets to rivers in the hour leading up to the homecoming event.

The scene was not too different to the driving rain in which Armitstead raced to second place in the Olympic women's road race outside Buckingham Palace.

But, as the bus and its escort of cyclists set off on its tour round Otley's streets, the storm moved on.

On the bus, Armitstead said: "It's just incredible, overwhelming. It's not anything I expected.

"I thought maybe a few people would turn out - friends and family - but it's been fantastic."

And the 23-year-old joked that the rain has followed her around since her sodden triumph in London.

"I thought 'typical', I've been praying for rain and I get it all the time now," she said.

"But never mind. It's dried up now and plenty of people showed up anyway."

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