Armstrong completed the trial with a time of 44.26.42, a narrow lead over the next closest competitor, Russia’s Olga Zabelinskaya. “That’s what we do, we cry when we’re happy”.
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“On Aug. 5, I had my ticket to go to Russian Federation at 2 o’clock, and at 11 o’clock, on the way to airport, they tell me I stay here”. She finished fourth, just 11 seconds behind her team-mate Van der Breggen.
Whitten was finally overtaken by road race bronze medallist Elisa Longo Borghini, who displaced Whitten by a margin of just under 10 seconds. “The roads on the downhills were very slick”, Villumsen said.
Several Russians, including Zabelinskaya, were reinstated at the last minute but she said it had been a nervy wait. “It’s very emotional that I win the medal again”. “I know every Boisean shares my pride that Kristin is one of our own and honored that she provides our city, and especially its children, with such a powerful and positive example of hard work, dedication and community involvement”.
Savola said the first-place ranking was Armstrong’s answer to critics and those who said she did not belong on the U.S. team. She won her third consecutive gold in the event, one day before her 43rd birthday. But she eschewed competing in the toughest races in Europe to spend more time with her family, much to the chagrin of rival riders who made the sacrifices of racing overseas.
Ultimately, two Americans filed for arbitration to try to make the team.
Armstrong has tried to leave cycling before – twice, actually – but the allure of new challenges kept bringing her back.
She was denied gold, however, by the USA’s Kristin Armstrong, … “Today the stars aligned”. The Boise, Idaho resident leaped out to a quick start, logging the fastest 10-kilometer split of the day with a time of 17:07.93, almost five seconds better than the next competitor. She made up the difference over the final flat run to the finish, precisely the kind of terrain that suits her riding style perfectly.
“That was part of Kristin’s motivation today, is for her to come out and say, ‘yeah, I am the oldest”. “And about 5k to go, he said, ‘Here we go. It’s up to you what color of medal you want.’ And I was like, ‘Well, it’s up to me?'” She suffered a nosebleed during the race, but looked focused and determined as she cycled toward the finish line.
In wet and windy conditions, she posted a time of 44min 26.42sec to edge out Russian Olga Zabelinskaya, who only returned from an 18-month doping suspension past year, by 5.55sec, with Olympic road race champion Anna van der Breggen of the Netherlands third at 11.38sec. In the evening, they said we won’t.
“People have asked me over and over why am I back, and it’s because I can”, she said. “I had my ticket to go back to Russian Federation”. But she eschewed competing in the toughest races in Europe to spend more time with her family, much to the chagrin of rival riders who made the sacrifices of racing overseas.
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“I’m not the only cyclist that has a doping problem in the past”, said Zabelinskaya, who has always maintained her innocence. “There was emotion of exhaustion, there was emotion of ‘I cant believe this, ‘ and there was emotion of so much excitement that it happened”.
