Men’s Road Race
It was a gruelling course and many big names were expected to contend. An early breakaway saw six riders away but a high pace 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) would try to bridge the gap. All were soon caught with another group forming, led by Vincenzo Nibali (Italy). He would whittle 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 would bridge over and take him off the top two spots.
🥇Greg Van Avermaet 🇧🇪
🥈Jakob Fuglsang 🇩🇰
🥉Rafal Majka 🇵🇱
Men’s Road Time Trial
Fabian Cancellara 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 would fly 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 way up the mountain with Annemiek Van Vleuten (Netherlands) but the Dutch rider crashed badly on the wet roads of the descent. In the final sprint, it was 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. Borghini (Italy), Anna Van Der Breggen (Netherlands) and Kristin Armstrong (United States) would 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 would overturn the deficit to pinch gold. Behind her,m Borghini was fading and in the battle of the Dutch, van Der Breggen took bronze.
🥇Kristin Armstrong 🇺🇸
🥈Olga Zabelinskaya 🇷🇺
🥉Anna van Der Breggen 🇳🇱
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