Road Race, Individual, Men

The road race started in Musashinonomori Park and finished at the Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka. The race was more suited to climbers because of the severity of some of the climbs, including the 14 km ascent on Mount Fuji.

The leading contenders in Tokyo were the No. 1 and 2 ranked Slovenians, the 2020 and 2021 Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar, and former world junior champion ski-jumper Primož Roglič, winner of the Vuelta a España in 2019 and 2020. The defending Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet of Belgium was hoping to become the first man to successfully defend his title. South America’s best chance was with Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz, who came to the Games having finished third in the Tour de France, while Spain’s Alejandro Valverde could never be discounted. Great Britain had a strong team, with three Grand Tour winners in their squad. They had the 2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas, that year’s Vuelta a España winner Simon Yates, and the 2020 Giro d’Italia winner Tao Geoghegan Hart.

Two of the British riders, Hart and Thomas, were involved in a crash in the early part of the race that left them trailing at the back of the field, before they both eventually pulled out of the race. For the 35-year-old Thomas it was the third major race in succession in which he was involved in a collision, following ones at the Giro d’Italia, and the Tour de France just three weeks before the Olympics.

Raced in warm and very humid conditions, a five-man group broke away and built up a 20-minute lead but, on the severe climb up Mount Fuji, that lead was gradually reduced. The climb was too much for the 41-year-old Spaniard Valverde, and the 2018 world champion quit the race. With 48km to go, the breakaway group was pulled back and joined the peloton, before three men, including the Italian Vincenzo Nibali, formed another breakaway. With a little more than an hour to go, however, the two-time Tour de France winner Pogačar took the lead, but a group of riders went with him, including the Belgian Wout van Aert, to prevent the Slovenian building up a big lead. Canada’s Mike Woods and Britain’s Adam Yates joined the leaders before Carapaz and Brandon McNulty (USA) pulled clear and built up a 20-second lead, which they extended thanks to working together and, with so many riders tiring, it looked like Carapaz and McNulty would fight for gold and silver.

Going into the final 7 km, however, their lead was down to less than 20 seconds and, at around 6 km, Carapaz made a solo break from the tiring McNulty, who was rapidly overtaken by the chasing group. Carapaz raced away around the Fuji Speedway, where James Hunt clinched the 1976 World Formula One title, to win by 1:07, and become only the second Olympic gold medallist from Ecuador after Jefferson Pérez in the 20 km walk in 1996. It was then down to eight men to fight it out for the two other medal places and it was Britain’s Adam Yates who made the break for the line but, after a frantic sprint, it was the Belgian van Aert and Pogačar who took bronze and silver respectively. A photo-finish revealed that Van Aert took silver by the width of a tyre. Because of the intense heat and humidity, only 85 of the 128 starters finished the race.