The Tokyo Olympics officially kicked off with the Opening Ceremony on July 23, and now cycling fans have 16 days of competition to look forward to.
Who said anything about withdrawal from the Tour de France?
There are five cycling disciplines—Road race, mountain bike, BMX racing, BMX freestyle, and track cycling—and 22 events among those five disciplines. A medal will be handed out each day from July 24 until August 8, with the exception of July 29. So consider that your rest day!
Below, we recap each medal event, and any highlights that you need to know about from the qualifying rounds.
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Men’s road race—July 24
🥇 Richard Carapaz, Ecuador
🥈 Wout van Aert, Belgium
🥉 Tadej Pogačar, Slovenia
The men’s road race was a long affair that started at Musashinonomori Park on Saturday morning in Tokyo—Friday night for the North American fans. As the first cycling event of the Olympics, it did not disappoint; this race, which was just under 150 miles of racing and over 4,800 meters of climbing, featured searing hot temperatures and plenty of early breakaways, and we saw just how tired some of the top riders were from their recent efforts at the Tour de France.
The early break with five riders extended their gap to nearly 15 minutes before the peloton began to chase in earnest, with Belgium leading the charge. Belgian Wout van Aert was one of the race favorites, so the squad needed to keep him in good position. The bulk of the climbing would come late in the race, so the racers were playing a tactical game, saving energy and staying as cool as possible in the early miles.
At just under halfway, the gap was coming down as the climbs began, and a small crash left Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas in trouble but still pedaling. With 50 miles left of racing, the break dropped to under five minutes, and with just under 25 miles to go, the peloton swallowed the early chasers, with the Belgian riders controlling the pace.
Then, the attacks began. Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar attacked, with American Brandon McNulty working to close the gap and Canada’s Mike Woods hot on his heels. When Woods led after a summit. van Aert managed to catch him, but Ecuador's Richard Carapaz and McNulty attacked again, opening a gap with 23 kilometers to go. Woods tried to close the gap, but it was van Aert who eventually had to begin to drive the pace of the whittled down chase group.
With four miles to go, Carapaz—the 2019 Giro d’Italia winner and third-place finisher at this year’s Tour de France—attacked McNulty and sped towards the finish. McNulty struggled to maintain a gap ahead of the chasers, and he was caught with roughly three miles to go.
Carapaz soloed smoothly into the finish to collect the first cycling gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics by more than a minute. Behind him, van Aert managed to sprint for silver in a photo finish, with Pogačar taking the bronze medal. Behind them, Bauke Mollema of The Netherlands scored fourth, Woods in fifth and McNulty in sixth in an impressive performance for the 23-year-old.
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Tokyo Olympics - 2021 Cycling Results and Highlights - Bicycling
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