Men’s Road Race
An early breakaway soon got away but it was not a race defining move. The first attack from expected medal contenders came from Ben Healy (Ireland) and Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan). The race was soon turned on its head by Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) who accelerated through the field. Only Valentin Madouas (France) was the only man able to keep up but on the final climb on Montmarte he accelerated away. The only danger he would come across was a puncture within the last 10km. A quick change and he was still able to move away.
🥇Remco Evenepoel 🇧🇪
🥈Valentin Madouas 🇫🇷
🥉Christophe Laporte 🇫🇷
The Olympic road race is a graveyard for favourites! I would have really struggled to get that podium with 100 guesses. Evenepoel was surely too tired given his other exploits. The French pairing were clearly inspired by a loud home crowd.
Men’s Time Trial
There were issues with the conditions as the track was wet and there were many fallers. One of the favourites Josh Tarling (Great Britain) had an early front wheel puncture so had to swap his bike for another. Despite this at the first checkpoint he was one of six men within fifteen seconds as Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) led. At the second checkpoint it was down to four riders. Evenepoel led Wout Van Aert (Belgium) by ten seconds with Filippo Ganna (Italy) and Tarling within ten seconds of him. Van Aert was the first of the leaders to cross the line and he led by over a minute. Tarling was next over the line and two seconds behind Van Aert despite the bike change. Ganna was the next to come and despite a wobble he was ten seconds ahead of Van Aert. Evenepoel would follow with an incredible ride, fighting his fatigue from the Tour De France to take gold.
🥇Remco Evenepoel 🇧🇪
🥈Filippo Ganna 🇮🇹
🥉Wout Van Aert 🇧🇪
I felt good about this. Tarling would have been on the podium without a bike change. Evenepoel shocked me given his busy schedule, I still cannot believe he managed it.
Women’s Road Race
Again, the peloton was happy to let the early escapees get away. A number of attacks would be made with none sticking. With 50km to go, a crash saw Chloe Dygert (United States) and Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) go down, causing splits in the peloton. It was soon a group of ten. After lots of squabbling, Lizzie Deignan (Great Britain) would attack only for a counter attack by Blanka Vas (Hungary) and Marianne Vos (Netherlands) to drop her. Soon the chase group behind was five. Soon it was down to Kopecky and Kristen Faulkner (United States) looking to catch up with the front runners. They would catch them with about 4km to go, only for Faulkner to fly past the leading group. Vos and Kopecky were able to sprint away from Vas to take other medals.
🥇Kristen Faulkner 🇺🇸
🥈Marianne Vos 🇳🇱
🥉Lotte Kopecky 🇧🇪
Kopecky will maybe felt she could have won this without the crash, however that is road cycling. I mentioned I expected a Dutch medal but went for the consistently stronger Vollering.
Women’s Time Trial
The conditions were some of the worst of the Olympics as the roads were soaking. This led to numerous falls with Taylor Knibb (United States) particularly struggling. One of the early leaders was Kim Cadzow (New Zealand). Ellen Van Dijk (Netherlands) was my pre-event pick but was still struggling with her injuries and could only finish eleventh. Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) would be the first go ahead of her. It looked like the quicker ladies were behind her with Grace Brown (Australia) leading at both time checks. Chloe Dygert (United States) was second at both with Anna Henderson (Sweden) in third. The American was another would suffer a fall. Juliette Labous (France) would go into the lead first but when Henderson arrived she was ten seconds ahead of Labous. Brown was the next person to take the lead, finishing with a massive gap of 91 seconds. Dygert would follow over the line but could only come third, less than a second behind Henderson.
🥇Grace Brown 🇦🇺
🥈Anna Henderson 🇬🇧
🥉Chloe Dygert 🇺🇸
The injuries or lack of race fitness felt key here. Van Dijk nor Dyger seemed 100%. I did mention Henderson as a contender to compete.
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