Lizzie Armitstead signs two-year contract extension with Boels-Dolmans until 2018 to quash talk of early retirement ahead of Rio 

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World champion Lizzie Armitstead has signed a two-year contract extension with Boels-Dolmans, ending talk of early retirement.

The 27-year-old from Otley won the Road World Championships in Richmond, Virginia last September and is Britain's leading contender in the Rio Olympics.

Armitstead, who won Britain's first medal of London 2012 with silver in the road race, joined Boels-Dolmans in 2013 and the Dutch squad on Tuesday announced she had signed a new deal until 2018.

World champion Lizzie Armitstead has signed a two-year contract extension with Boels-Dolmans

She won the World Cup series in 2014 and 2015, when she also won the world title and this year she has won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the Strade Bianche, the Trofeo Binda and the prestigious Tour of Flanders.

'I have achieved my greatest sports successes in this environment and look forward to continuing my career here,' Armitstead said on the team's official website.

Dutch team manager Danny Stam has also renewed his contract until 2018.

Armitstead had said retirement after Rio was 'possible' after winning the world champion's rainbow jersey she had long coveted last September.

The 27-year-old Armitstead (centre) is Britain's leading contender in the Rio Olympics in the road race

'As far as I'm concerned, as soon as you reach your goal then that's the box ticked for me, I don't feel the need to repeat titles or repeat victories, as soon as I get the one then I'm happy,' she said on cyclingweekly.co.uk.

'So after Rio I don't know what I'll do, that's really just a massive question mark.'