Rio de Janeiro, Aug 7: Belgium cyclist Van Avermaet Greg won the gold of the men’s cycling road race of the Rio Olympic Games here on Saturday.
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The race for gold had looked set to be a shootout between Majka, Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) and Sergio Henao (Colombia) after the trio had attacked out of the lead group on the final climb, but Nibali and Henao both then crashed on the descent down the other side to leave Majka out on his own heading on to the flat 9.5km to the finish.
Majka tried valiantly to hold on but with victory in sight he was caught less than two kilometres from the finish line by Van Avermaet and Fuglsang. The three riders were home free, as the victor would be determined in the final meters of the race. Van Avermaet was the first to launch his sprint, and was able to hold it all the way to the line. Behind Van Avermaet, Jakob Fugslang took silver, before Poland’s exhausted Rafal Majka settled for bronze.
Moments later, Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas wrecked in an unrelated accident, also apparently due to his inability to handle the extreme speeds in the final descent of the race. “I knew I had to hang on”.
“When I saw the crash I was confused about how many riders were still up the road”, the 31-year-old said.
“I was working with Fuglsang, and we saw Majka”. We saw Majka. We knew it was possible. “Everyone said all week it was for everyone else”.
The Olympics began in full with the first gold medal going to an American teenager by the fearsome name of Thrasher. Majka, Nibali and Henao had appeared to be on their way to podium in the order.
One by one, a pack driven by Britain, Spain and Italy pulled back the break, though Kwiatkowski made them work for it. To come here and win bronze makes me so happy.
There was drama off the course of the 237-kilometer race when a controlled explosion was carried out on a suspect package near to the finish.
Woods finished in a group after six hours 30 minutes 50 seconds of cycling on Saturday in the men’s Olympic road race. “There is no impact to the race”.
Former world champion Michal Kwiatkowski of Poland was joined by Colombia’s Jarlinson Pantano, a stage victor at last month’s Tour de France, Switzerland’s Michael Albasini and Simon Geschke of Germany – two riders who have also won Tour stages in the past.
Van Avermaet, who took six hours and 10 minutes to complete the punishing course, had not been tipped as one of the pre-race favorites despite a strong season in which he won a stage of the Tour de France and also wore the leader’s yellow jersey.
He and fellow Italian Fabio Aru launched an audacious attack to shred the race on the final ascent and Nibali looked poised to add an Olympic title to his Tour de France, Giro and Vuelta victories when calamity struck.
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Froome could yet emulate Sir Bradley Wiggins, who is the only Tour victor to win Olympic gold in the same year, by upgrading his bronze behind his compatriot four years ago in Wednesday’s time-trial.
