Another shock in store as Armitstead set to get the nod over golden girl This morning in Manchester four men will settle around a table and begin the forensic process of choosing the riders to compete for Great Britain at next month's Olympic Games. Selection is the Olympic issue of the moment and, when it comes to cycling, competition for places is fiercer than ever. There are some extraordinarily tight calls to be made. Will it be Chris Hoy or Jason Kenny in the men's sprint? Will David Millar, freed for selection by the lifting of the lifetime drug Olympic ban, return to support Mark Cavendish in the men's road race? But the decision that may delay Dave Brailsford, the man behind British Cycling's success, and his three wise men the longest is over who will take the lead in the women's road race. It is a straight choice. On one hand there is Nicole Cooke, who swept through the rain in Beijing to win gold four years ago. On the other, there is Lizzie Armitstead, the former track world champion long identified by British Cycling as a star in the making. What makes the choice all the more intriguing is that both will be picked in the team but it is a curiosity of cycling that it is only the leader, the one who crosses the line first, who is rewarded with a medal. What makes it more intriguing is that Cooke and Armitstead have history. Last year, Armitstead was chosen as lead rider for the world championships in Denmark, but the race did not go according to plan and afterwards Armitstead accused Cooke of riding for herself. The team ethic in cycling is everything, and to accuse someone of breaking it caused a storm. "It's something I've learnt from," says Armitstead. It's something I would not do again, but I stand by what I said. I said it because I believe we will be a stronger team in London for it. I'm confident that on the day we will be able to work for each other. The decision on who will lead could be left on ice until the chosen team assemble in their Surrey hotel before the Games, but Armitstead's case is a strong one. She is the form rider. "I've been happy to work for other people in the past and felt one day I'd develop into a leader and then get the support," she says. It's the culture of cycling - if you believe somebody else has a better chance of winning then you support them. Armitstead helped Cooke win the world title four years ago and the unspoken suggestion is that it is vice-versa time. It is in Armitstead's favour that she rides for the Dutch road team, AA Drink-leontein.nl, alongside fellow Britons Emma Pooley, Lucy Martin and Sharon Laws, who are all in contention for Olympic places. This season she has already won the first women's Gent-Wevelgem road race over a course that has been compared to the one through London and Surrey over which the Olympics will be raced. There is a purposeful singularity to Armitstead. She is quietly spoken, her accent revealing her Yorkshire roots, roots the 23-year-old has left behind to benefit her road ambitions. She is now based on her own in Nice, having decided to concentrate fully on the road at the expense of a track career. On the hills around Nice she pedals out mile after mile, day after day. "I find Britain too distracting, the lifestyle, the traffic, it's always so busy," she says. In Europe it's more relaxed in comparison. It's much easier to focus on what I'm doing. Lizzie Armitstead is supported by BP, the official oil and gas partner for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. To find out how BP is supporting Lizzie, go to bp.com/london2012