Road Race, Men

The road race course consisted of eight laps of a 24.525 km. course, which was quite hilly. The course allowed the field to break apart more so than in any Olympic road race since the mass start format had begun in 1936. There was no heavy favorite as the last three World Championships had seen nine different riders on the podium. Pierfranco Vianelli broke away from the leading group on the last lap and won with almost a minute and a half to spare. Runner-up Leif Mortensen won the 1969 World Championship. Vianelli had a great professional début the following year, placing seventh in the Tour de France. After that little was heard of him until he concluded an impressive solo win at the Giro d’Italia stage on top of the Großglockner – his last major win.

The Mexico race featured several future cycling greats. “Jempi” Monseré finished in fifth place, but won the professional world title in 1970. Six months later, the Belgian was killed in a collision with a car during a race. Compatriot Roger De Vlaeminck (18th) was the best classics cyclist during the 1970s, excelling in the grueling Paris-Roubaix race, which he won four times. In 2005, De Vlaeminck presented a Belgian television show in which he coached several cyclists from Zimbabwe to appear in the World Cyclo-Cross Championships. Finally, non-finisher Joop Zoetemelk would become a Tour de France winner in 1980, and was second in “La Grand Boucle” no less than six times.