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The wild 1948 Olympic road race: Fist fights and riders fixing their own flats

The race was notable for its many punctures and a punching match

Photo by: David Guénel @davidguenel

Cycling has always been a tough sport, but imagine if you had to change your tubular tire yourself mid-race. No support cars. No extra wheels. Just you and your tire hanging around your shoulders and tire irons in your pocket. Until 1930, Tour de France riders could not receive any mechanical support either. In the 1929 TdF,  French rider Victor Fontan had to quit the race while he was leading due to a mechanical problem. The following year this rule was abandoned, so cyclists could get help when they had problems with their bike.

But those rules didn’t apply at the Olympic level. At the men’s individual road race at the 1948 London Summer Olympics the riders rode on an 11.45 km circuit around Windsor Great park 17 times for 194.6 km. There were 101 participants from 29 countries. Of the 101 starters, only 28 finished.

Crashes everywhere

The course was relatively flat, but full of sharp twists and turns, which resulted in many crashes. What also compounded the difficulty was that the surface was not so great, as it traversed many gravel roads. The rocks caused dozens of flats during the race.

Back then, each country could enter up to four cyclists, and back then there was also a team classification. It was based on the rankings of the three best cyclists per nation, and this was used to determine the medals for the so-called “team road race.”

The race was fast from the start, with Sweden’s Nils Johansson breaking away from the pack on the second lap. Dutch riders Gerrit Voorting and Henk Faanhof caught him a few laps later.

Punctures at the wrong time

But soon: the unthinkable happened. Johansson got a flat tire on the ninth lap. You can see him trying to fix his tire as he sees the pack ride by him in the video below. Soon after, a break of nine riders would catch Voorting and Faanhof but a flurry of flats and crashes completely changed the race.

Eventually the French rider José Beyaert made two attacks on the final lap, being caught by the pack then launching again from the lead group on a short climb just a kilometer from the finish. Voorting would nab the silver medal, and the unlucky Johansson would still manage to finish fifth, even though he’d put on a tubular in the middle of the race without any glue.

You can see some clips of the old days, when cyclists had to change their own tires, below.