Team GB's first London 2012 medal winner

Wow! What a great day.
We had tickets to watch the action on Box hill so headed off earlyish this morning. It was an hours walk up the hill through the woods to get to the top of the hill where there was a huge screen and nice grassy area surrounded by trees. We watched the start from there- well from under the trees as the first rain shower came then- and then after an hour or so walked down through the woods to the road they were going to come up. Down at the road we got a good viewing spot and could hear what was happening as they had loudspeakers.
The cyclists did 2 loops of Box hill (the men did 9 yesterday) so we saw them pass twice. The crowd was loud and so the atmosphere was great. And it was sunny at this point. This was taken on the 2nd loop and you can see the Dutch winner Marianne Vos and silver medal winner Lizzie Armitstead on the left of the shot. I did get a closer up one of the 3 on the left but it was so similar to yesterday's that I decided I liked this better as it gives a feel for the event.

After this we walked back up to the big screens to watch the end. Just as we sat down the heavens opened and we got drenched. But we didn't care and again, the atmosphere was amazing. Everyone was screaming.
It was quite different to the mens race as they all stayed as one group (apart from some stragglers) until about 20km from the end when 4 women broke free. 1 of them dropped back (we think she got a puncture) and so the other 3 kept the lead. They worked so well together, taking turns at leading while the other 2 tucked in behind. It was amazing to watch. And very nerve wracking as the roads were so wet and there had been a few crashes and punctures so we couldn't relax until they were safely over the line.
This photo I found on the spotlight page (next to mine from yesterday- woohoo!) shows what the conditions were like towards the end!

After that we had to walk back the long way down the hill, down the road as they wouldn't let us go through the woods due to the rain. It was about 3.5 miles back down and so the boys walked over 6 miles today! They were brilliant and ate every single crumb of their fish and chips when we finally got home.

PS. Thanks for all the comments on my 500 Wiggins blip from yesterday. I was very chuffed to make spotlight.

PPS. If you were the man in the yellow hat who got in several of my photos- grrr!