Road Cycling 2016 Rio Olympics Review

Men’s Road Race

It was a gruelling course and many big names were expected to contend. An early breakaway saw six riders get away, but a high pace in the peloton meant they could not succeed. Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland) managed to stay away the longest and a chase group of Dominic Caruso (Italy), Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium), Geraint Thomas (Great Britain), Rein Taaramae (Estonia) and Serge Henao (Colombia) attempted to bridge the gap. All were soon caught, with another group forming, led by Vincenzo Nibali (Italy). He whittled the group down to Henao and Rafal Majka (Poland). On the descent, disaster struck for Nibali as he crashed, with Henao and Thomas also crashing. This left Majka clear but Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark) and Van Avermaet bridged over and took him off the top two spots.

🥇Greg Van Avermaet 🇧🇪

🥈Jakob Fuglsang 🇩🇰

🥉Rafal Majka 🇵🇱

Men’s Road Time Trial

Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) retained the title he had won in 2008. He edged Rohan Dennis’ (Australia) time up the mountain and although he lost 25 seconds before the second check, he flew around the rest of the course to lead by over a minute compared to Jonathan Castroviejo (Spain). Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) came close a few times but after a long flat finish, Cancellara was 47 seconds up. Dennis’ medal hopes were dashed on the second lap as his left aero bar broke and he was forced to change bikes.

🥇Fabian Cancellara 🇨🇭

🥈Tom Dumoulin 🇳🇱

🥉Chris Froome 🇬🇧

Women’s Road Race

Once again, a solo effort was crushed near the finish line, this time Mara Abbott (United States) missing out on a medal. She had escaped on the climb with Annemiek van Vleuten (Netherlands), but the Dutch rider crashed heavilyon the wet roads of the descent. In the final sprint, it was Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands) who pulled away, honouring her teammate who looked like being the winner before her crash.

🥇Anna van der Breggen 🇳🇱

🥈Emma Johansson 🇸🇪

🥉Elisa Longo Borghini 🇮🇹

Women’s Road Time Trial

Tara Whitten (Canada) was one of the early starters and set a time that was not beaten for a long time. Elisa Borghini (Italy), Anna Van Der Breggen (Netherlands) and Kristin Armstrong (United States) all eventually pass her time in reaching the first checkpoint. Olga Zabelinskaya (Russia) would set a relentless pace though and was two seconds up on closest challenger Armstrong at third check, with Borghini in third. She seemed to believe she had won but Armstrong, the final racer to finish overturned the deficit to pinch gold. Behind her, Borghini faded and in the battle of the Dutch, van Der Breggen took bronze.

🥇Kristin Armstrong 🇺🇸

🥈Olga Zabelinskaya 🇷🇺

🥉Anna van Der Breggen 🇳🇱