Majka had looked like cruising to gold when his fellow two members of the leading pack, Vincenzo Nibali and Sergio Henao, crashed out on the final descent to leave him on his own.
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Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet was crowned Olympic champion, winning a three-man sprint against Jakob Fuglsang and Rafał Majka who won silver and bronze respectively.
And as he counted his blessings, Thomas – who once rode for 2,000 miles on Le Tour with a fractured pelvis – admitted: “At least I was fortunate not to do any damage”.
Thomas ended the race in 11th, Chris Froome 12th and Adam Yates 15th.
After nearly six hours of racing, Thomas was part of a six-man lead group that had opened up a 30-second gap on what was left of the peloton.
“But it was a massive shame because I was ready to fight for the win, and to crash on the last corner of the final descent was harder to take mentally than physically”. I was totally focused on what I do best.
But she said: “Once I’ve got a number on my back I’m a totally different person and I’m focused and it didn’t enter my mind once in the race”.
GB done most of the pace setting, and when Thomas bridged a gap with the lead group consisting of the likes of Michael Albasini and Michal Kwiatkowski, everything was going according to plan.
“That descent is super dodgy”. It was twisting and the road was really uneven and any little mistake you were going to pay the price so it was tough. I was racing for the win but we had been on the bike for six hours and it was 30 odd degrees and everyone was exhausted. And then it was just trying not to take too many risks and still go down fast but steady.
“It shows how technical and risky it was”.
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Thomas is unsure whether his Olympics campaign is over because he is still waiting to see whether he will be handed a spot in the time trial on Wednesday alongside Froome. Fingers crossed. Obviously, we have got one spot at the moment, which Chris Froome is riding, and there is potential that we could get another.
