Belgium’s Van Avermaet Prevails in Brutal Olympic Road Race

The hard nature of the course offered a rare opportunity for the Giro d’Italia victor and former Tour de France champion to compete for gold.

Van Avermaet looked out of the running with 10 miles remaining in the race, but after multiple wrecks, he was able to overcome a flagging Rafal Majka of Poland to claim gold. “I was working with Fugslang and we saw Majka. I knew I had to hang on”. “Everyone said all week it was for everyone else”, Van Avermaet said.

The race looked to be playing into the hands of favorite Vincenzo Nibali, who broke clear in a group of three with Sergio Henao and Majka. Having broken off the front and looking good for podium places, Nibali and Henao collided horribly on the descent and came a gruesome cropper in an accident Majka needed all his supreme bike-handling skills to avoid. Fellow Briton Geraint Thomas finished ahead of him in the 11th spot.

Majka was left clear but could not hold off Fuglsang or Van Avermaet, who won the sprint to the line.

“Sometimes, it pays not to take risks”, Fugslang said.

One by one, a pack driven by Britain, Spain and Italy pulled back the break, though Kwiatkowski made them work for it. Rugby sevens, the fast-pace, condensed form of the game, is the format for the sport’s return to the Olympic program for the first time since 1924, when the US men won the gold medal in the 15-a-side tournament. When they caught Majka, the Pole knew the game was up and he did not even contest the sprint finish.

“I tried to pace myself and make it back on in the descent but I just wasn’t able to catch back on and that was my day. I can not believe it”.

Earlier in the day, the finish line at Copacabana Beach was rocked by the sound of a large bang – an official told the AP it was a controlled explosion, and that no one was injured in the incident.

(AP Photo/Felipe Dana). In this photo taken with a slow shutter speed, people watch as cyclists ride past them on Ipanema beach during the men’s cycling road race final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016. “There is no impact to the race”.

A dream year for Van Avermaet has also included winning his first major week-long stage race, Tirreno-Adriatico, and the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad one-day classic.

But the former soccer player – who didn’t follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, both professional cyclists, until his late teens – was comfortably the strongest of the riders under sun-kissed skies in Rio.

Three times a victor of the Tour de France’s maillot jaune, this was Chris Froome’s latest tilt at yellow of a shinier hue and curiously, for a man who usually rides with a Sky team renowned for its attention to detail and “marginal gains”, his race was nearly over before it began.

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.