The route

As with the men’s route, the women’s race takes in two circuits with cobbles, steep climbs and a flat finale.

The women’s race is 141km in length, and includes two circuits of the Grumari Natural Park, which features a 2km cobbled sector and two climbs.

Grumari comes first – a steep 1.2km ascent with a seven per cent average gradient and pitches a steep as 13 per cent.

The tree-lined climb is very narrow, meaning the fight for position on the flatter opening section of the race should be intense.

The second climb is 2.1km long with an average gradient of 4.5 per cent, and both – alongside the cobbles – are to be tackled twice.

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The women then take on one ascent of the Vista Chinesa climb – a two-stage climb which pitches up sharply at the start, before a small descent and then another slightly less steep climb to the summit.

The total length is 8.9km and the average gradient between five and six per cent, but that is skewed by the descent part way up the climb.

Finally, a technical 6km descent and a long, flat run-in back to Copacabana Beach completes the Rio 2016 women’s road race.

Lizzie Armitstead (Great Britain)

After winning the Women’s Tour of Flanders and Aviva Women’s Tour this season – two of seven victories in all since becoming world champion – Armitstead was a big favourite for the Rio 2016 Olympic road race, an occasion she called the “biggest goal of my season and career” in an interview with RCUK.

The wheels have come off in the last month, however, after a third ‘whereabouts’ failure in 12 months saw Armitstead provisionally suspended by UKAD, before a successful appeal to CAS cleared her to race.

The third of those whereabouts failures was as a result of a family emergency, on which Armitstead has been unwilling to elaborate further, but those personal circumstances, combined with a lack of racing from a provisional suspension and the furore surrounding her CAS case have come at the worst possible time for the world champion.

Nevertheless, Armitstead has proved her resilience before – bouncing back from her high-speed crash at the Aviva Women’s Tour last year to first win the national championships, then the Women’s World Cup and then ultimately the rainbow jersey. Never count her out.

Great Britain team for Rio 2016 women’s road race: Lizzie Armitstead, Nikki Harris (Boels-Dolmans), Emma Pooley (Lotto-Soudal Ladies)

Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy)

Queen of the Mountains at this year’s Giro d’Italia Femminile, Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini certainly has the climbing talent needed for the Rio 2016 road race.

The 24-year-old won La Route de France last year too, including stage wins at Avallon and on La Planches des Belles Filles, again underlining her ability when the road rises.

The Italian time trial champion – who was also on the podium of this year’s Women’s Tour after finishing third overall – is not a rider you want to give an advantage to over an ascent.

Former world champion Georgia Bronzini is also in the Italian line-up, and is not a rider the rest of the peloton will want to be sprinting against if she is still in the mix after the Vista Chinesa climb.

Italy team for Rio 2016 women’s road race: Elisa Longo Borghini, Georgia Bronzini (Wiggle-High 5), Tatiana Guderzo (Hitec Products), Elena Cecchini (Canyon-SRAM)

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (France)

French all-rounder Pauline Ferrand-Prevot is bidding to make history at Rio 2016, with her attempt to win gold medals in both the women’s road race and the cross-country MTB.

At one point last year, the French superstar was world champion in both disciplines, as well as in cyclo-cross, but her 2015 campaign ended in injury.

Ferrand-Prevot’s racing has been limited this season, with just a handful of top-ten finishes, but the 24-year-old should not be counted out of the reckoning for Rio.

France have just two riders in the road race, with Wiggle-High5’s Audrey Cordon, the national time trial champion, their second option.

France team for Rio 2016 women’s road race: Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Rabo Liv), Audrey Cordon (Wiggle-High5)

Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Poland)

Still aged just 21, Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma looks set for a bright future in women’s cycling after being crowned best young rider at the Giro Rosa for the second consecutive year.

Finishing seventh overall, Niewiadoma was in the top ten on six of the ten stages, as she continued with the form which has seen rack up wins aplenty in 2016.

A Polish national road race and time trial double, alongside a stage win and the overall title at both the Giro del Trentino Alto Adige and Festival Elsy Jacobs have all grown her burgeoning reputation.

But while the future’s bright, what about the present? Niewiadoma has proved she can mix it with the best and could be a dark horse in Rio.

Poland team for Rio 2016 women’s road race: Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Rabo Liv), Malgorzata Jasinska (Ale-Cipollini), Anna Plichta (BTC City Ljubljana)