Another Star-Spangled Banner. Another medal.
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After an eventful road race last Sunday which saw Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS, The Netherlands) crash badly out of a winning position and her compatriot Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv, The Netherlands) take the Olympic title, we were looking forward to a usually less dramatic individual time trial today.
“I want to swear, but I shouldn’t”, said Armstrong’s USA teammate, Evelyn Stevens.
It is bleeping unbelievable.
Armstrong also just “loves a challenge”, she said said in a teleconference (via CyclingNews.com) on Tuesday night.
Then 18 months ago, she chose to make another gold-medal run.
Unlike American swimmer Lily King this week, Armstrong declined to ridicule her opponent. Rain moved in overnight and made the already technical course, with steep descents and twisting turns, even more hard. Descents and corners would be even more treacherous.
Armstrong said ” this is the hardest journey I’ve ever had” but she put together another golden effort in an Olympic time trial. “I haven’t experienced this in all of my years”. I can do this’. I have one last mission and Im really excited about it. Boulder’s Taylor Phinney is now racing in the men’s time trial. It is a theater of suffering.
Armstrong completed the 18.6-mile time trial on the rainy streets of Rio in 44 minutes, 26.42 seconds. Averaging almost 25 miles per hour, she won Wednesday’s 18½-mile race in 44 minutes, 26.42 seconds, a full 5.55 seconds faster than Russia’s Olga Zabelinskaya, who took silver.
That mistake perhaps cost the Dutch rider a medal as she finished fourth, just 11 seconds behind her teammate Van der Breggen.
In the men’s race, Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara was equally emotional as he clinched his second Olympic gold later on Wednesday. “The fact that she came back and did it again in London and now has done it again in Rio is …”
After winning gold in 2008, Armstrong initially retired from the sport after giving birth to Lucas in 2010.
Zabelinskaya said she was “happy” to end a traumatic week with a medal, having been about to board a plane home for Russian Federation two days before the Games started. Her place on the four-woman US team was in doubt in another sideshow common with subjective Olympic selections. And, at age 43, she’s the oldest woman on the team by seven years. One of the riders had beaten Armstrong in the national championships, putting her place on the team in doubt. “It might be a back to normal job”, she said. “I spend time with people in my community, and that’s what I’m grateful for”.
It was eventually decided – a week prior to heading to Rio de Janeiro – that Armstrong’s spot was secured. “I went to brush my hair, I found another one on my brush”.
What about four medals in a row? Despite that awful disappointment, Abbott provided constant encouragement to Armstrong leading into Wednesday’s time trial. After defending her Olympic gold medal in London in 2012, she took time off from hard training and racing (she does not like to use the word “retirement”).
“I think, of course, any athlete would like to come back and keep coming back, but there does come a point where you won’t be able to perform at that level any longer”.
She sounded comfortable with a goodbye.
“I’m very happy, but of course, I am also disappointed that I could not win the gold medal because it is only five seconds to first place”, said the 36-year-old Russian.
Her 5-year-old son, Lucas, whom she famously held on the medal podium at the 2012 London Games, ran over and asked why she was crying. “Didn’t you win?” she said.
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Well said, Kristin. And congratulations.
