4 GB loses out in Olympic road races
Team GB fall short as punishing Rio route comes under fire for lack of safety considerations
It was always going to be a tall order but in two wildly unpredictable races over a hectic opening weekend of sport, Great Britain lost out in the road race roulette at the opening cycling events at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Amid high hopes for the team in the road races just as they were in London four years ago, Lizzie Armitstead claimed GB’S best performance by sprinting across the line on the seafront of Copacabana beach for fifth in the women’s road race behind Dutch winner Anna van der Breggen.
With a medal almost in sight, Geraint Thomas crashed out on the demanding final descent from the hills of Rio, getting up from the gutter to finish 11th behind canny Belgian winner Greg van Avermaet while Chris Froome, who sprinted to 12th, was unable to become the first man to win the Tour de France and Olympic Games road race double.
“We always knew the race was going to be a bit of a lottery,” said Froome. “I wasn’t coming in thinking I was guaranteed a medal or anything. I thought the guys all rode well. I certainly didn’t leave anything out there.”
Frantic and volatile
The opening events of this year’s Games reflected a frantic and volatile atmosphere in the first South American city to host the Olympics. An abandoned bag was destroyed in a controlled explosion alongside the finish of the men’s road race midway through the race as wider security and organisational concerns dogged the Games.
Alongside the stunning backdrop of the road races around the hills of Rio and the finish line along one of the most famous beaches in the world, questions were raised about the safety of the final descent from the Vista Chinesa climb after two serious crashes transformed the outcome of the races.
Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) fell when in the lead of the men’s road race, breaking his collarbone in two places, while
Annemiek van Vleuten (Netherlands) suffered a horror crash in almost the same spot while leading the women’s race.
The 33-year-old somersaulted into dangerous, exposed high kerbs in an incident that was reminiscent of Fabio Casartelli’s fatal crash into concrete bollards on the Col de Portet d’aspet in the 1995 Tour de France. Initially static on the side of the road, Van Vleuten was evacuated to hospital and at the time of going to press was conscious and being treated in intensive care for concussion and three lumbar spinal fractures.
GB men’s coach Rod Ellingworth said: “I knew from the test event that descent was perhaps going to be a deciding factor in the race and it was. You think about how many riders crashed down there it was pretty mad really.”
Chris Boardman, working as a pundit for the BBC, added: “I’m actually quite angry because I looked at the road furniture and thought nobody can crash here and get up. This [descent] was way past technical, this was dangerous.” Full coverage from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games road races on page 24-31