The highly-fancied British men's team failed to live up to the expectation of delivering Mark Cavendish into a gold medal-winning position Saturday when Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov triumphed ahead of the Team GB.

Nicole Cooke is one among British women in race, who won gold in Beijing.

Cooke starts as a big favourite alongside teammate Lizzie Armitstead, who, like Cavendish, would be favoured to excel in a team race.

But Britain's women won't find the going easy in the 140 km race beginning and starting on The Mall, with Dutchwoman Marianne Vos, Italian Giorgia Bronzini and Germans Judith Arndt and Ina Teutenberg also expected to shine.

Also, Canada's Clara Hughes, American Kristin Armstrong and New Zealand's Linda Villumsen may turn out to be tough competition for the aspiring Team GB.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2010