Dan Martin has finished 13th in the men's road race at the Olympic Games. The Irishman was pipped in a sprint for the minor placings by Chris Froome, denying him a new marker for 'best Irish cyclist at an Oympics'.
In a race that will rightfully be regarded as one of the most exciting of the season, Greg Van Avermaet took the biggest ever win of his career for Belgium on a day Ireland’s Dan Martin equalled the country’s best ever finish at a Games.
Martin was 13th across the line in the men’s road race at the Rio Games, some two and a half minutes behind Van Avermaet while the only other Irishman in the race Nicolas Roche was further back in 29th, some nine minutes down.
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Ciaran Power’s 13th from the Athens Olympics set a high bar for the two Irish riders in the race today and they came into the race with plenty of optimism given recent performances, both in with a chance of a medal and Martin and outsider to win.
They battled hard all afternoon in the blistering heat and the brutal course but towards the latter part of the contest it was clear both were in difficulty, as were most of the field it must be said.
Martin said last week he was “almost certain” the winner of the race would be someone who rode the Tour de France and he wasn’t wrong.
Van Avermaet had a superb Tour, wearing the yellow jersey for a couple of days as well as really imposing himself throughout and he clearly came into today in tremendous form.
How it unfolded
An early breakaway went clear and built a huge gap of over seven minutes, though it came back to some five minutes pretty quickly and stayed like that for much of the race.
In that original escape were Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland), Simon Geschke (Germany), Sven Erik Bystrom (Norway), Michael Albasini (Switzerland), Pavel Kochetkov (Russia) and Jarlinson Pantano (Colombia).
Roche rode well but said he lacked a little bit on the climbs; an honest verdict as ever (Photo: Inpho-Cycling Ireland)
They rode well to stay away as long as they did, but with four smaller circuits of the Grumari National Park to complete followed by three laps of a tougher circuit, it was always going to be those final three climbs that would win or lose the race.
And that’s what came to pass; the early breakaway falling apart and being caught on the second of the three final laps, by which time the peloton was already reduced to a tiny group, with Daniel Martin and Nicolas Roche still in there for Ireland.
Both riders looked very comfortable on the first of three passages of the key climb of the race, but Roche would go off the back on the penultimate climb, with 43km remaining to the finish.
He slipped back and lost contact with Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland as the peloton numbered no more than 30 riders with the small breakaway just up the road.
And that point, with the Australians on the front of the group having missed the breakaway of five that went after the early escape, Martin had slipped back down the field.
He was still in the small peloton, but his position now was markedly further down the bunch that the first time the field had tackled the climb on the previous lap.
It was a worry considering he had looked so smooth just a little earlier and that one more lap with another passage of the climb was still to come.
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Greg Van Avermaet was clearly over the moon with his win; it was a crazy finale shaped by crashes, though the winner rode a brilliant race (Photo: Sirotti)
Just before the top of the climb Denmark’s Jakob Fuglsang had a dig and got clear.
Over the top of the ascent and the peloton was reduced a little further, with three riders crashing including Richie Porte.
The Australia hit the deck hard after earlier mechanicals and losing his chain in the cobbled section of the first circuits the race took in in the earlier part of the event.
And while that drama was unfolding, a five man breakaway just off the front swelled considerably.
Geraint Thomas of Great Britain had been up there with four others, catching Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland) last of the early escape.
But coming off the penultimate climb, the Italians made a huge move and put three of their riders up there.
They were Damiano Caruso (Italy), Fabio Aru (Italy) and Vincenzo Nibali (Italy). They made the juncture with Rafal Majka (Poland), Adam Yates (Great Britain) and Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark) and they also brought Kwiatkowski back up to the leaders.
Those riders caught Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium), Thomas (Great Britain), Sergio Henao (Colombia) and Andrey Zeits (Kazakhstan) – all of whom had pulled away in a counter attack as the early escape was falling apart and being caught.
The good news behind was that Roche had gotten back onto the small peloton with Cancellara.
The bad news for Ireland was that Martin was still in that peloton rather than up the road where the Italians were driving for home as the distance remaining dipped under 30km as the gap reached 50 seconds.
Cancellara incredibly went to the front of the peloton and worked as hard as he could with help from Spain’s Valverde; the Spanish having incredibly missed the chasing group move despite the presence of three Italians in it.
Caruso rode his legs off up front and came to a standstill after riding as long as he could, with Aru taking it up after the former blew up.
And on the final ascent the breakaway exploded, with Chris Froome (Team GB) attacking from what remained of the bunch.
Martin was still there but had no answer when Froome went and, truth be told, he look in trouble from the second of the final three circuits.
And with Nibali doing a lot of damage up front with several stinging attacks, he finally pulled clear alone with 17km remaining; only Majka and Henao able to follow from the breakaway, but the remains of that group just a few seconds back.
But with the trio up front all guaranteed a medal and willing to ride; the leaders were looking very good indeed.
However, Nibali and Henao would crash on the last descent and while that left Majka to ride for his life into the finish for gold, the Pole was already pedalling squares.
And when the eventual winner and silver medalist pounced from the chase group behind, they caught him very quickly; Majka so exhausted he was too busy trying to stave off cramp to even try and sprint, taking the bronze instead.
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