Lizzie Armitstead signs two-year contract extension with Boels-Dolmans

World champion Lizzie Armitstead has signed a two-year contract extension with Boels-Dolmans, ending talk of early retirement.

The 27-year-old from Otley won the Road World Championships in Richmond, Virginia last September and is Britain's leading contender in the Rio Olympics.

She won Britain's first medal of London 2012 with silver in the road race.

She also won the World Cup series in 2014 and 2015, when she also won the world title and this year she has won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the Strade Bianche, the Trofeo Binda and the prestigious Tour of Flanders.

Armitstead had said retirement after Rio was "possible" after winning theworld champion's rainbow jersey she had long coveted last September.

"As far as I'm concerned, as soon as you reach your goal then that's the box ticked for me, I don't feel the need to repeat titles or repeat victories, assoon as I get the one then I'm happy," she said on cyclingweekly.co.uk.

"So after Rio I don't know what I'll do, that's really just a massive questionmark."