BOISE, Idaho (KBOI) - A broken clavicle in the Exergy Tour will not keep Kristin Armstrong from the Olympics.U.S.A. cycling named Armstrong to the four-woman 2012 London Olympic team on Friday.
She joins Amber Neben as time trial specialists and road racers Evelyn Stevens and Shelley Olds on team U.S.A.
The announcement puts to rest weeks of waiting for Armstrong. The 2008 Olympic time trial gold medalist was thought a likely lock for the 2012 games when she crashed on a hairpin turn in the opening time trial at the Exergy Tour May 24. She had surgery the next day to repair a broken clavicle and returned to training almost immediately.
Then, Armstrong was defiant when asked if the injury would impact her ability to make the 2012 Olympic team.
"My chances are not gone," she said May 25. "I have nine weeks until the Olympics. I'm going to come back stronger than ever. This injury is not going to keep me from going to London."
There are two spots on the U.S. cycling team for women's time trial specialists. Armstrong, Evelyn Stevens and Amber Neben were in a very tight race for those spots, U.S. Cycling Director Steve Johnson told KBOI-TV before the Exergy Tour. It was thought then that one might be left off the Olympic team.
Armstrong beat Stevens in three races this year and said in the days following her crash that her resume was certainly strong enough to leave her no worries about making 2012 Team U.S.A.
The five U.S. road cycling male representatives are Tyler Farrar (Wentachee, Wash.), Chris Horner (Bend, Ore.), Tejay Van Garderen (Tacoma, Wash.), TImothy Duggan (Boulder, Colo.) and time trial specialist Taylor Phinney (Boulder, Colo.).
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