Home > News

Greg Van Avermaet wins Rio 2016 men’s road race

Belgian adds gold to 2016 Tour de France stage win, stint in yellow

August 6, 2016
Share on SMS

Belgian Greg Van Avermaet took gold in the men’s road race on the first full day of competition at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympic Games. It was a gripping contest on the hardest ever Olympic Games road course. Van Avermaet’s victory gives him a truly impressive 2016 palmares.


From Flamengo Park at Copacabana Beach the riders headed west to take on four laps of the Grumari circuit, each with two climbs and cobbles, before returning east to face three laps of the Canoas/Vista Chinesa loop in Tijuca National Park featuring an 8.9-km climb.


Dutchman Tom Dumoulin abandoned 10-km into the race to concentrate on Wednesday’s time trial. With German Tony Martin pushing the pace as the sun-baked race traveled west, his teammate Simon Geschke took off in the day’s first breakaway. He had five friends along including red-hot Colombian Jarlinson Pantano. After taking a maximum of 8:00 over the peloton, the escapees entered the Grumari circuit where the cobbles began to cause havoc.

Richie Porte (Australia), Bauke Mollema (The Netherlands), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway) and Van Avermaet were among those who suffered mechanicals. Stems and saddles chattered loose. Bottles jumped out of cages. After two laps of Grumari, the sextet kept a 5:00 lead. The Brits, Italians and Spaniards controlled the peloton.


At the end of the Grumari circuits the break’s lead was 2:30 but crosswinds touched off action in the peloton, with gaps appearing. The peloton was whittled down to 80-riders. Chris Froome had to chase back on before the first Vista Chinesa loop because of a mechanical. Canada made its first appearance at the front on the journey between the two circuits.

The Vista Chinesa climb is listed as an average of 6.2% but this is because of a downhill section midway. The first half is the steepest, with grades up of 15%. The fugitives, all clad in mainly white jerseys, entered the first circuit with 2:00 over the field.

Svan Erik Bystrom (Norway) was the first breakaway to fall off the pace on Vista Chinesa. British raider extraordinaire Steve Cummings whipped along the peloton before the Italians took over. Russian Pavel Kochetkov and Pole Michal Kwiatkowski were the last fugitives standing with a strong five-man chase between them and the peloton.

Spain’s work streamlined the field to 40-riders, as Italy (Damiano Caruso), Great Britain (Geraint Thomas), Colombia (Sergio Henao) and Belgium (Van Avermaet) all had riders in the chase.

On the second passage of Vista Chinesa, the chase final grabbed Kwiatkowski, the lone survivor of the day’s first breakaway. The new bunch, without Kwiatkowski, had 30-seconds over the peloton by the peak of the climb. There were several crashes on the technical descent, with Richie Porte (Australia) the most notable victim.

Italians Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru, along with Dane Jakob Fuglsang and Brit Adam Yates, bridged over on the drop with 35-km to go. With the addition of Pole Rafal Majka and the return of Kwiatkowski, it was a powerful dozen leading the race.

Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland), road race silver medalist in Beijing 2008, led the peloton, but the breakaway had 50-seconds on the bunch at the start of the last ascent. As the break began to crumble, Joaquim Rodriguez (Spain) sparked a chase. Then Froome made his move forward with Yates falling away.

Nibali’s dig with 22-km remaining shattered the escape group, but there was a reformation. Rodriguez bridged with South African Louis Meintjes. Another surge from Nibali and Henao at 17-km to go created a gap, Majka joining in.

Nibali and company crested with 10-seconds over the chase. It was clear that Froome wasn’t going to make it over to the Thomas and Rodriguez chase, as Rui Costa (Portugal) left the triple Tour de France leader behind.

But Nibali and Henao would crash on the descent and Majka carried on solo. Thomas also wrecked out of the chase group.
https://twitter.com/CyclingHubTV/status/761991930658054144
Majka hit the 10-km flat run to the finish line with 23-seconds over Rodriguez, Aru, Fuglsang, Van Avermaet, and Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe. Van Avermaet and Fuglsang moved away from the other chasers.

Majka time trialed while the Belgian and Dane inched closer. When the junction came with 1.5-km Van Avermaet was the strongest sprinter and dispatched the others with aplomb, becoming the first Belgian to take the men’s road race since André Noyelle in 1952. Fuglsang gave Denmark its fourth men’s road race Olympic Games silver.

Michael Woods was the only Canadian to finish, in 55th place, 20-minutes back. “The initial part of the race went great,” said Woods. “Hugo [Houle] and Antoine [Duchesne] did an amazing job of keeping me well positioned in the decisive moments of the race. I came into the climb third wheel, in the best position possible. I had really good legs the first time up the climb and was starting to feel confident that I could do a top-10.

“But the second time up the climb, I just came apart with about 3 km to go and lost the wheel in front of me, and went through a bad patch mentally. I’m pretty gutted to not be in a better position, and to fall through after the great job Hugo and Antoine did. But at the same time, I gave it my all. This is, without a doubt, the hardest race I’ve ever done. The wind, the heat, and the 5,000 m of climbing. Throughout the day, it was just so hard. I’ve never gone that deep before.”

“It was a pretty hard day,” Houle said. “It was fast from the start, and then a break went away with six strong guys. Antoine and I just tried to keep Mike as safe as we could and keep him to the front of the race. With the cobblestones and the climbs and steep descents we saw a lot of crashes, but we placed Mike the best we could for the last circuit. Then Mike had to do the best he could because we were out of the game. For myself, I just didn’t have the legs to follow the big guns. We were hoping for a better result at the end, but it is what it is, and we gave it everything we had.”

“The race went as planned,” Duchesne said. “Me and Hugo were here as support for Mike, and we tried all day. It was a really fast day, and we never had any down moments to recover. There were a lot of crashes and broken bikes, so we tried to keep him safe and protected for the first three-quarters of the race, and that’s what we did, I think, perfectly. But at the end, I think it’s the strongest that won the race. We really hoped for better, but Mike didn’t have the legs to follow the best. That’s bike racing.”

Sunday’s women’s race features two laps of the Grumari and one of the Vista Chinesa for 136.9-km.

2016 Rio de Janiero Olympic Games Men’s Road Cycling Race
Gold: Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium) 6:10:05
Silver: Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark) s.t.
Bronze: Rafal Majka (Poland) +0:05
55th) Michael Woods (Canada) +20:00