The backdrop was one of the most spectacular in Olympic history: The Great Wall of China. But it was what was happening on the roads below that stole the attention on this particular Sunday afternoon in August to set the ball rolling for Britain's most successful Games in a century.

In torrential rain, Nicole Cooke, 25, achieved her lifelong ambition when she won Olympic gold with a thrilling, sensational performance in cycling's 126km Road Race.

The result looked in doubt as a pack of four riders headed towards the line but Cooke, who grew up in the Vale of Glamorgan, had enough strength to triumph.

Her victory saw her win Britain's 200th gold medal at either a summer or winter Games. It was also the first for Team GB in Beijing, the first by a British female cyclist and the first by any British cyclist, male or female, in a road race.

But for Cooke, it would not be her only success of the year. In September, she returned to the saddle to win the World Championships in Varese, Italy, to achieve a unique double.

It was the first time that any rider, male or female, had won a world and Olympic road race title in the same year. And that was one of the telling factors for why she was standing on the stage here at Lord's as our Sportswoman of the Year.

She beat fellow cyclist Victoria Pendleton, who won the Olympic and world sprint title, and Hayley Turner, who made history in December at Wolverhampton when she became the first female jockey to ride 100 winners in a calendar year.

Cooke was ecstatic to have succeeded Pendelton as the winner of our main award.

"It is fantastic," she said. "I had a battle-plan so to speak last year and it all came off."

Equally, Cooke became the first Welsh Olympic champion since horseman Richard Meade won individual and team awards in the three-day event at the 1972 Munich Games.

But as she stood watching her victory in Beijing replayed on the giant screens this afternoon, she revealed why she kept pedalling even after she had triumphed.

"I was not going to give up until I crossed that line and my hand stayed firmly on the bar," said Cooke.