Otley’s Lizzie Armitstead believes she has sacrificed herself for the greater good of Britain in bidding for road and omnium success at the London 2012 Olympics.

This time last year Armitstead chose to embark on the omnium, a multi-discipline two-day event newly added to the 2012 programme, along with ongoing team pursuit commitments.

The 22-year-old looked every bit at home in both at the World Championships in Denmark, twice claiming silver, but fast-forward a year and that is no longer the case.

A growing desire to pursue the road, underlined by Commonwealth silver last October, as well as the track has seen Armitstead drop the team pursuit in favour of the omnium.

Armitstead won world team pursuit gold in 2009 but is adamant the decision to concentrate on two solo events for 2012 as opposed to one of each was made with her fellow Brits in mind.

“It feels like the London 2012 Olympics are getting closer and closer every day,” said Armitstead – who if selected will begin her 2012 campaign on the road on July 29.

“It is the base of anything anyone ever asks me at the moment and for an athlete, like me, to have a home Olympics in their career is something very special.

“I want to be a road rider and a track rider and I don’t feel that it is fair the commitment I want to put on the road to also then race in the team pursuit as well.

“It was a decision that had to be made and it is just mind-boggling getting your head around how big the London 2012 Olympics are going to be.

“Preparations are really starting to step up; they need to, because the aim for me is to medal on both the road and in the omnium at the Olympics.” Armitstead was due back on the global stage in the omnium at the World Track Championships in the Netherlands last month but was ruled out after suffering a side strain.

Having finished seventh at the Manchester World Cup, she had been looking to turn silver into gold in Apeldoorn after finishing second in the 2010 championships.

“I was consistently average at every event in Manchester but in the omnium you need to be consistently good right across the board,” she added. “I needed a bit more track time, I was trying to go on the track having had a road rider’s winter and it was extremely hard.

“I tried to do that but it didn’t work so ever since then I have been trying to put things into practice so the same thing doesn’t happen in my next competition.”

* Join fellow Europeans at the London 2012 ‘one year to go’ celebrations at St Pancras International courtesy of Eurostar. View competition details at www.eurostar.com/london2012. Eurostar is the Official International Rail Services Provider to the Games, and also the British, French and Belgian Olympic teams.