Home > Rides+Events

7 surprising Olympic cycling moments from Tokyo so far

An eventful first week of the Games

Photo by: Twitter/Nao

It’s day six of the Olympics and the cycling world has a lot to talk about. The road events have wrapped up at this year’s Olympics, but Canadians can still keep their eyes open for our athletes in the BMX and track races.

So far, races went in unexpected directions, officials accidentally took down riders and the Dutch cycling team are just having a generally really weird time.

Here are a few notable surprises:

1. The women’s road race results

Nobody predicted that Anna Kiesenhofer, an Austrian time trial specialist, would win the women’s road race. She was was virtually unheard of until she won gold in the Olympics this weekend.

Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten finished the race ahead of the peloton, but behind kiesenhofer. She was unaware that another rider had crossed the line first as she sat up and celebrating what she thought was an Olympic gold medal. Read more…

RELATED: The top 4 most unexpected moments of the Olympic women’s road race

2. BMX crash

In the second incident in the Dutch cycling team’s bad luck, an official stepped onto the BMX track during a training run and was struck at high speed by Niek Kimmann. The rider was uninjuered despite a sore knee. No news on the official.

3. Mathieu van der Poel drops out of race

Mathieu van der Poel, a favourite for the Olympic gold, had his dreams crushed Monday when a crash on the first lap left him injured and unable to finish the race. The rider claims he thought a ramp present on the Sakura Drop feature in training runs would be left in during the race. Read more…

RELATED: Mathieu van der Poel in hospital following Olympics crash

4. Jolanda Neff’s save

On the same feature that ended van der Poel’s race, Jolanda Neff almost missed out on her gold medal. Riding the Sakura Drop the Swiss cyclist landed very front wheel heavy, and on nearly flat ground. But, improbably (and impressively), rode it out. Some say she was able to save it where van der Poel wasn’t due to her dropper post.

The ramp was present for Neff’s race (due to overnight rain) but she says her French competitor, Ferrand Prevot, braked before the ramp, forcing her to take a different line.

“I couldn’t brake and I ended up jumping with no speed at all,” said Neff. “I was super lucky that I didn’t crash. It was such a stupid move of hers because it’s really dangerous for the people behind. I don’t know if she knew I was right there behind, but after that, I just thought, ‘I have to get away from her.’ It’s scary because you never know what she’s going to do.  It’s not the first time she does something like that, I’m just glad I wasn’t near her anymore, I was glad I was riding on my own and safe.”

5. Van der Breggen knocked over

In more Dutch bad luck, Anna van der Breggen was knocked over by an Olympic official who mistakenly thought she wasn’t allowed to be pre-riding the time trial course. The rider said she was ok and uninjured, going on to finish third in the time trial the next day. Read more…

RELATED: Kirchmann 12th, Canuel 14th in Tokyo Olympic Games time trial

6. Jumbo-Visma time trial

Primož Roglič has had Vuelta a España title consolation prizes over the last couple of seasons after being unable to win the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France.

Finally, having dropped out of the Tour following bad crashes, he was able to earn a big win by securing the gold medal in the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games time trial. Roglič’s Jumbo-Visma teammate Tom Dumoulin also completed his 2021 season comeback with his second consecutive Olympic time trial silver medal

7. Playful Pogačar

Medal ceremonies are normally a quite serious affair, but Tadej Pogačar injected a bit of fun into the men’s road race by joking with the officials.

“Is this for me?” He asked, as he pointed at the gold medal on the platter held by the IOC member.