Olympic Champion: Following a doping ban and injury Vinokurov takes gold in London
The Irish men’s road race team has had a disappointing Olympic performance, with none of the trio making the 25-rider front group that outfoxed the sprinters’ teams to fight it out for the medals on The Mall in London this afternoon, Saturday.
David McCann, Daniel Martin and Nicolas Roche all finished in the main bunch some 40 seconds down on winner and new Olympic champion Alexandr Vinokurov (Kazakhstan).
McCann was the best placed of the trio in 55th, with Roche and Martin finishing side by side in 87th and 88th respectively.
While the Great Britain team tried to ride at the front for much of the 250km race, apparently confident they could let moves go up the road and later reabsorb them with their constant pace, it was a plan that simply did not work.
Advertisement
On the journey out to the circuit featuring the Box Hill climb, nine riders broke clear and at one point built a lead just north of 5:30.
That early break consisted of: Jonathan Castroviejo (Spain), Janez Brajkovic (Slovenia), Fumiyuki Beppu (Japan), Denis Menchov (Russia), Sungbaek Park (South Korea), Stuart O’Grady (Australia), Tim Duggan (US), Jurgen Roelandts (Belgium), Marco Pinotti (Italy), Lieuwe Westra (Holland), Michael Schar (Switzerland) and Alexander Kristoff (Norway).
While the GB team worked relentlessly on the front while the race was on the circuit – for nine laps in total – they were unable to control things for sprinter Mark Cavendish as they had done at the World Championships in Copenhagen last year.
On the fifth ascent of Box Hill a spell of attacking saw another group break clear, this time containing: Vincenzo Nibali (Italy), Lars Boom (Holland), Andriy Grivko (Ukraine), Niki Terpstra (Holland), Luca Paolini (Italy), Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark), Sylvain Chavanel (France), Gregory Rast (Switzerland), Jack Bauer (New Zealand), Taylor Phinney (US) and Philippe Gilbert (Belgium).
The two leading groups then merged two laps later and had a gap of 45 seconds on the bunch, with the GB team on the front now beginning to wilt a little but being aided in the chase by the Germans.
Related News
Gilbert decided he would attack the breakaway coming off the climb on the second last lap and while he pulled out a decent lead he never looked like succeeding and was caught by the breakaway.
Last time up the hill the GB team totally lost control of the race with some big guns getting clear and making it across to the large breakaway, which was still less than one minute up the road. Those to bridge across included Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland), Luis Leon Sanchez (Spain), Alejandro Valverde (Spain), Vinokurov and Uran Uran.
Coming off the circuit to race back into the centre of London to the finish with over an hour remaining, the chase in the peloton was looking tired but the GB riders still had a chance. However, the leaders had one minute and with 25kms to go the gap had grown to 1:05.
Cancellara then misjudged a corner and fell heavily. While he remounted, he had sustained an arm and shoulder injury and never regained the lead group, being quickly caught and passed by the bunch.
Up ahead, the breakaway raced into the finish and with 7kms to go Uran Uran attacked down a slight dip in the road. Vinokurov was first to react. There was a slight stall in the bunch and the duo were away.
They worked well all the way to the finish, with Vinokurov staring his sprint to the line by jumping to the right as Uran Uran looked over his left shoulder to assess the gap to those behind.
Once Vinokurov got the jump on the Colombian, there was only going to be one winner, with the Kazak having plenty of time to celebrate a gold medal that will be tainted in many people’s eyes by his two-year ban for blood doping in 2007.
Uran Uran took silver while Norway’s Alexander Kristoff took the sprint from the breakaway for the bronze medal from a disappointed Taylor Phinney (USA) in fourth.
Olympic Road Race 250km
1 Alexandr Vinokurov (Kazakhstan) 5:45:57
2 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Colombia)
3 Alexander Kristoff (Norway) 0:00:08
4 Taylor Phinney (United States of America)
5 Sergey Lagutin (Uzbekistan)
6 Stuart O'Grady (Australia)
7 Jurgen Roelandts (Belgium)
8 Gregory Rast (Switzerland)
9 Luca Paolini (Italy)
10 Jack Bauer (New Zealand)
11 Lars Boom (Netherlands)
12 Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark)
13 Rui Alberto Faria Costa (Portugal)
14 Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spain)
15 Roman Kreuziger (Czech Republic)
16 Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Colombia)
17 Andriy Grivko (Ukraine)
18 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spain)
19 Philippe Gilbert (Belgium)
20 Sylvain Chavanel (France)
21 Janez Brajkovic (Slovenia)
22 Fumiyuki Beppu (Japan)
23 Robert Gesink (Netherlands)
24 Alexandr Kolobnev (Russian Federation)
25 Lars Petter Nordhaug (Norway)
26 Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spain) 0:00:16
27 Andre Greipel (Germany) 0:00:40
28 Tom Boonen (Belgium)
29 Mark Cavendish (Great Britain)
30 Arnaud Demare (France)
31 Francisco Jose Ventoso Alberdi (Spain)
32 Murilo Antonio Fischer (Brazil)
33 Tyler Farrar (United States of America)
34 Peter Sagan (Slovakia)
35 Andrey Amador Bakkazakova (Costa Rica)
36 Bernhard Eisel (Austria)
37 Kam-Po Wong (Hong Kong)
38 Elia Viviani (Italy)
39 Hector Hugo Zamarron Rangel (Mexico)
40 Daryl Impey (South Africa)
41 Matti Breschel (Denmark)
42 Radoslav Rogina (Croatia)
43 Assan Bazayev (Kazakhstan)
44 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spain)
45 Miguel Ubeto Aponte (Venezuela)
46 Borut Bozic (Slovenia)
47 Ramunas Navardauskas (Lithuania)
48 Yukiya Arashiro (Japan)
49 Manuel Antonio Leal Cardoso (Portugal)
50 Rene Mandri (Estonia)
51 Jackson Rodriguez (Venezuela)
52 Vladimir Isaychev (Russian Federation)
53 Yauheni Hutarovich (Belarus)
54 Ivan Stevic (Serbia)
55 David McCann (Ireland)
56 Aleksejs Saramotins (Latvia)
57 Martin Elmiger (Switzerland)
58 Nicki Sorensen (Denmark)
59 Gediminas Bagdonas (Lithuania)
60 Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland)
61 Danail Andonov Petrov (Bulgaria)
62 Adil Jelloul (Morocco)
63 Ryder Hesjedal (Canada)
64 Jussi Veikkanen (Finland)
65 Arnold Alcolea (Cuba)
66 Dmytro Krivtsov (Ukraine)
67 Kristijan Durasek (Croatia)
68 Nelson Filipe S. Simoes Oliveira (Portugal)
69 Tomas Aurelio Gil Martinez (Venezuela)
70 Lars Ytting Bak (Denmark)
71 Gonzalo Andres Garrido Zenteno (Chile)
72 Daniel Teklehaimanot (Eritrea)
73 Jan Barta (Czech Republic)
74 Sebastian Langeveld (Netherlands)
75 Gustav Larsson (Sweden)
76 Vegard Stake Laengen (Norway)
77 Branislau Samoilau (Belarus)
78 Grega Bole (Slovenia)
79 Cadel Evans (Australia)
80 Daniel Schorn (Austria)
81 Niki Terpstra (Netherlands)
82 Simon Gerrans (Australia)
83 Matthew Harley Goss (Australia)
84 Tony Gallopin (France)
85 Michael Schar (Switzerland)
86 Timothy Duggan (United States of America)
87 Nicolas Roche (Ireland)
88 Daniel Martin (Ireland)
89 Michael Rogers (Australia)
90 Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium)
91 Christopher Horner (United States of America) 0:00:49
92 Ian Stannard (Great Britain) 0:00:50
93 Bert Grabsch (Germany)
94 Michael Albasini (Switzerland)
95 Lieuwe Westra (Netherlands)
96 Sacha Modolo (Italy) 0:00:54
97 Stijn Vandenbergh (Belgium)
98 Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) 0:00:56
99 Marcel Sieberg (Germany) 0:01:11
100 Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) 0:01:17
101 Tejay Van Garderen (United States of America) 0:01:34
102 John Degenkolb (Germany) 0:02:52
103 Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) 0:05:43
104 Marco Pinotti (Italy) 0:08:07
105 David Millar (Great Britain) 0:09:19
106 Denis Menchov (Russian Federation)
107 Edvald Hagen (Norway BOASSOH)
108 Christopher Froome (Great Britain)
109 Laurent Didier (Luxembourg)
110 Ioannis Tamouridis (Greece)
111 Maximiliano Ariel Richeze (Argentina)
112 Maciej Bodnar (Poland)
113 Mehdi Sohrabi (Islamic Republic of Iran)
114 Gabor Kasa (Serbia)
115 Ahmet Akdilek (Turkey)
116 Byron Patricio Guama De La Cruz (Ecuador)
117 Gregolry Panizo (Brazil)
118 Kemal Kucukbay (Turkey)
119 Magno Prado Nazaret (Brazil)
120 Oleg Berdos (Republic of Moldova)
121 Andrei Nechita (Romania)
122 Michal Golas (Poland)
123 Amir Mustafa Rusli (Malaysia)
124 Krisztian Lovassy (Hungary)
125 Greg Henderson (New Zealand)
126 Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus)
127 Soufiane Haddi (Morocco)
Topics
