TOKYO • Ecuador's Richard Carapaz won gold in the Olympic men's cycling road race yesterday, timing to perfection a tactical, final descent after a tough 234km course worthy of a mountain stage of a Grand Tour.
It was only Ecuador's second gold at the Olympics, after that of Jefferson Perez in the 50km race walk in the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, bidding to become the first cyclist to win the road race in the same year as the Tour de France, had to be content with bronze in a photo finish with Belgium's silver medallist Wout van Aert.
"It's an incredible moment for me," said Carapaz, 28, who finished third at the Tour this month.
"You always have to believe. I have worked so hard to be here and it's a huge moment for me.
"I can only say thank you to them (the Ecuadorian people) for the support and, honestly, for giving us such a big push."
The star-studded peloton rolled out of Tokyo's Musashinonomori Park with the unusual sight - for these pandemic-delayed Games - of tens of thousands of locals lining the roads, masked and with many toting umbrellas as early temperatures soared to 32 deg C.
The entire route accumulated a staggering 4,865m of climbing - more demanding than the major mountain stages of the Tour.
After Friday's opening ceremony at the 68,000-capacity Olympic Stadium devoid of fans, it was a welcome sight to see Japanese spectators line the course around Mount Fuji.
As the peloton sped out of the greater Tokyo conurbation, lush green forests replacing the concrete jungle, locals waved, cheered and snapped photos as if it were a Tour stage in non-Covid times.
Britain's Geraint Thomas, the 2018 Tour champion who suffered a dislocated shoulder in this year's edition before miraculously getting back and finishing the race, suffered an early crash yesterday and eventually withdrew.
Nic Dlamini, who this month became the first black South African to race in the Tour, headed a lead group of five riders up and over the Kagosaka Pass and then into a long descent before the climb to Fuji Sanroku (14.3km at 6 per cent).
Riders hit speeds of up to 85kmh coming down from the second of the three major climbs.
Flashing by the pit lanes of the Fuji International Speedway racing circuit for the first time, the breakaway was finally reeled in with 40km of the race remaining.
It heralded the start of a cat-and-mouse game up to and over the Mikuni Pass, its 10km climb averaging 10.6 per cent with some sections at more than 20 per cent.
The peloton was quick to split at the start of the ascent, the Belgians and Slovenians taking up the pace before Pogacar further upped the ante.
It was the first of many surges, before Carapaz and Brandon McNulty bolted, the Ecuadorian former Giro d'Italia winner eventually dropping the American with 6km to race. One-day specialist van Aert, who finished 19th on the Tour, pushed in pursuit.
But nothing could stop Team Ineos rider Carapaz, who slapped his handlebars in triumph as he crossed for an impressive solo win in 6hr 5min 26sec back at the Fuji racing circuit.
Defending champion Greg van Avermaet of Belgium was one of 45 riders from the starting peloton of 130 who failed to finish the gruelling race.
But the 41-year-old Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, appearing in his fifth Olympics, rolled home in 42nd position, more than 10 minutes off Carapaz's pace.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
