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| Event type

Road Race, Individual, Men

Date14 August 2004 — 12:45
StatusOlympic
LocationPlateia Kozia, Athina
Participants144 from 43 countries
Format211.2 km. (131.3 miles) mass start race.

The defending champion Jan Ullrich, was back for another shot at gold, but the world’s top road cyclist, Lance Armstrong, elected not to compete after winning his sixth consecutive Tour de France in 2004 (later annulled when he doping conspiracy was revealed in 2012). Early in 2004, the favorite for the race seemed to be Davide Rebellin, who won three classics races, Flèche-Wallone, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and the Amstel Gold Race. But as the summer wore on, his form went off a little. Rather than riding in the hilly country outside of Athens, the race was contested in the city, and the relatively flat course was not difficult enough to break apart the professional peleton. Into the last lap, 40 riders remained together, but a foursome of Paolo Bettini (ITA), Sérgio Paulinho (POR), Axel Merckx (BEL), and Erik Zabel (GER) got away together. On reputation, Zabel was the most highly considered, especially as a sprinter, but Bettini and Paulinho got away to win gold and silver. Merckx, the son of Eddy Merckx, chased their break, but did not catch it, but managed to stay away to win the bronze, with Zabel winning the field sprint. Bettini was a solid professional rider. He had won several classics from 2000-2004, and a stage in the Tour de France in 2000, and he would win the World Championships road race in 2006-07.

Four riders, 3 Americans and a Canadian, were retrospectively disqualified from the race following the investigation into the US Postal team doping scandal.

PosBibCompetitorNOCTimeMargin
1Paolo BettiniITA5-41:44Gold
2Sérgio PaulinhoPORat 0:01Silver
3Axel MerckxBELat 0:08Bronze
4Erik ZabelGERat 0:12
5Andrej HauptmanSLOsame time
6Kim KirchenLUXsame time
7Roger HammondGBRsame time
8Frank HøjDENsame time
9Kurt Asle ArvesenNORsame time
10Aleksandr KolobnevRUSsame time
11Robbie McEwenAUSsame time
12Markus ZbergSUIsame time
13Ciarán PowerIRLsame time
14Marcus LjungqvistSWEsame time
15Julian DeanNZLsame time
16Fränk SchleckLUXsame time
17Max van HeeswijkNEDsame time
181Jan UllrichGERsame time
1920Thomas VoecklerFRAsame time
2057Serhiy HoncharUKRsame time
2177Georg TotschnigAUTsame time
2260Kyrylo PospieievUKRsame time
2351Bo HamburgerDENsame time
2498Tadej ValjavecSLOsame time
2586Nuno RibeiroPORsame time
2623Bobby JulichUSAsame time
2738Martin ElmigerSUIsame time
2878Gerhard TrampuschAUTsame time
2979Santiago BoteroCOLsame time
3033Stuart O'GradyAUSsame time
31126Unai EtxebarríaVENsame time
3273Aleksandr VinokurovKAZsame time
3380Luis LaverdeCOLsame time
3450Yevgeny PetrovRUSsame time
358Daniele NardelloITAat 0:19
369Luca PaoliniITAsame time
3728Peter Van PetegemBELsame time
3842Erik DekkerNEDat 0:45
39124Romāns VainšteinsLATat 1:19
4097Gorazd ŠtangeljSLOat 1:36
4116Laurent BrochardFRAat 2:29
42111Benoît JoachimLUXsame time
437Cristian MoreniITAsame time
4415Alejandro ValverdeESPsame time
4519Richard VirenqueFRAsame time
4626Philippe GilbertBELsame time
4796Uroš MurnSLOsame time
4876Gerrit GlomserAUTat 3:37
4944Karsten KroonNEDat 5:29
5074Sergey YakovlevKAZat 7:04
51132Ruslan IvanovMDAat 8:51
5253Lars MichaelsenDENsame time
5361Tomasz BrożynaPOLsame time
54138Yasutaka TashiroJPNsame time
5587René AndrleCZEsame time
56135Sergey LagutinUZBsame time
5755Nicki SørensenDENsame time
58102Janek TombakESTsame time
59114Murilo FischerBRAsame time
6090Ján SvoradaCZEsame time
614Jens VoigtGERsame time
6289Ondřej SosenkaCZEsame time
63133Igor PugaciMDAsame time
6410Filippo PozzatoITAsame time
6559Yaroslav PopovychUKRsame time
66117Ryan CoxRSAsame time
6771Andrey KashechkinKAZsame time
68131Martin RiškaSVKat 9:44
6992Gustav LarssonSWEsame time
7072Andrey MizurovKAZsame time
71127László BodrogiHUNat 15:01
7263Dawid KrupaPOLat 18:41
DNF83Gonçalo AmorimPOR
DNF12Óscar FreireESP
DNF13Igor González de GaldeanoESP
DNF17Sylvain ChavanelFRA
DNF54Michael RasmussenDEN
DNF68Charly WegeliusGBR
DNF94Thomas LöfkvistSWE
DNF101Erki PütsepEST
DNF110Jeremy YatesNZL
DNF123Andris NaudužsLAT
DNF129Mark ScanlonIRL
DNF130Matej JurčoSVK
DNF46Vyacheslav YekimovRUS
DNF121Gord FraserCAN
DNF18Christophe MoreauFRA
DNF62Sławomir KohutPOL
DNF141Amir ZargariIRI
DNF14José Iván GutiérrezESP
DNF29Wim VansevenantBEL
DNF30Marc WautersBEL
DNF34Mick RogersAUS
DNF37Fabian CancellaraSUI
DNF39Grégory RastSUI
DNF43Servais KnavenNED
DNF81Víctor Hugo PeñaCOL
DNF104Morten HegrebergNOR
DNF119Tiaan KannemeyerRSA
DNF125José ChacónVEN
DNF134Dimitar GospodinovBUL
DNF139Yevgeny VakkerKGZ
DNF2Andreas KlödenGER
DNF3Michael RichGER
DNF25Jason McCartneyUSA
DNF31Baden CookeAUS
DNF35Matt WhiteAUS
DNF36Rubens BertogliatiSUI
DNF49Denis MenshovRUS
DNF56Volodymyr DumaUKR
DNF58Yuriy KrivtsovUKR
DNF64Radosław RomanikPOL
DNF65Sylwester SzmydPOL
DNF69Julian WinnGBR
DNF70Maksim IglinskyKAZ
DNF75Bernhard EiselAUT
DNF84Cândido BarbosaPOR
DNF91Magnus BäckstedtSWE
DNF99Andrus AugEST
DNF105Thor HushovdNOR
DNF106Mads KaggestadNOR
DNF107Heath BlackgroveNZL
DNF109Robin ReidNZL
DNF115Márcio MayBRA
DNF122Eric WohlbergCAN
DNF136Aliaksandr UsauBLR
DNF142Marcelo ArriagadaCHI
DNF143Wong Kam PoHKG
DNF144Ivan StevićSCG
DNF88Michal HrazdíraCZE
DNF118Robert HunterRSA
DNF137Shinri SuzukiJPN
DNF140Abbas Saeidi TanhaIRI
DNF100Jaan KirsipuuEST
DNF116Luciano PagliariniBRA
DNF66Stuart DangerfieldGBR
DNF47Vladimir KarpetsRUS
DNF11Igor AstarloaESP
DNF41Michael BoogerdNED
DNF82Marlon PérezCOL
DQ22George HincapieUSA[at 0:12]1
DQ120Michael BarryCAN[at 0:12]2
DQ24Levi LeipheimerUSA3
DQ21Tyler HamiltonUSA4