Wednesday 3 August 2016 09:21, UK
Lizzie Armitstead has admitted she was "naive" not to contest the first of the three missed drugs tests that almost landed her with a two-year ban.
The 27-year-old Briton was charged with an anti-doping violation and provisionally suspended by UK Anti-Doping in July but successfully appealed on the grounds that the first missed test was a result of the tester not trying hard enough to locate her.
She accepts blame for the two subsequent missed tests and now acknowledges that she should have contested the first as soon as it happened.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Armitstead said: "I did think about it, but the reason I didn't was because it was my first strike and it was very close to the World Championships, so I was travelling to America.
"I also didn't have the legal advice. It felt very much them against me. I was very naïve. I went ahead to the World Championships and I didn't want the distraction."
Armitstead is the current world road race champion and is the favourite to win gold in the Olympic Games road race in Rio on Sunday.
Had her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport failed, she would have missed the Games and not returned to action until the summer of 2018.
Armitstead added: "I felt like I was standing on a cliff and I was going to fall off the edge. It was more than just missing the Olympics in Rio; it was everything else. It was what was going on with my family. I was more concerned about my reputation and people's understanding of it.
"I could have been banned. That's what I was most scared about. All the hard work being for nothing. It was basically my livelihood and my sport being taken away from me. It was everything. A black line."
Athletes are charged with anti-doping violations if they miss three drugs tests in 12 months.
Armitstead accepts responsibility for a "filing failure" for her second missed test, on October 5 last year, but says the third missed test, on June 9 this year, was due to a family emergency.
She added: "The third one was out of character and under extraordinary circumstances,' she said once again. 'I continued to race until my suspension came through, so I completed the women's Tour [of Britain].
"I did media and all that kind of thing knowing that all this may be taken from me. I spent a lot of time on the phone to my friends and family to help me get through it."
Chris Froome, who last June admitted to a whereabouts 'failure' after an exclusive Italian hotel blocked access to him, was reluctant to comment on Armitstead's situation.
"I imagine it must be hard for her," Froome said. "I heard about it, but I haven't followed the details. I don't think it's appropriate for me to comment on it."
