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| Event type

Road Race, Individual, Men

Date28 July 2012 — 10:00
StatusOlympic
LocationThe Mall, London
Participants144 from 63 countries
DetailsDistance: 249.5 km

The winner of the men’s road race at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Spain’s Samuel Sánchez, was injured during the 2012 Tour de France and bowed out of defending his title in London. This left silver medalist Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland, who had also won the individual time trial in Beijing, as a significant favorite going into the event, although many observers also placed their bets on local hero Mark Cavendish, who was to be supported by a British )dream team) that included multiple Olympic gold medalist Bradley Wiggins, who just days before had won the Tour de France. The course’s flat terrain was thought to be the ideal setting for strong sprinters such as Cavendish to capture the podium.

A strong overall British team led the pack for much of the race, but slowly its members began to drop off from the competition. They were further set back when they decided against joining a critical breakaway 40km from the finish, hoping instead to stay with the peloton and have Cavendish sprint to gold in the final stretch of the race. With approximately 15km left to go, Cancellara crashed on a turn, opening up the competition to some of the second favorites such as Germany’s Andre Greipel and Belgium’s Tom Boonen. With approximately 10km to go, however, Columbia’s Rigoberto Urán and Kazakhstan’s Aleksandr Vinokurov broke away from the pack and led it for the remainder of the race. The duo was neck and neck until the end, when Urán slowed to look behind and Vinokurov bolted forwards for an easy victory. When the remainder of the pack caught up, it was Norway’s Alexander Kristoff who claimed the bronze.

Vinokurov was a dark horse for the victory. Although he had been cycling in the Olympics since 1996, and won silver in the individual road race in 2000 (having supposedly given up his shot at a victory to help his former professional teammate Jan Ullrich take gold that year), he was banned from the sport for two years in 2007 after testing positive for blood doping. He announced his retirement later that year, but returned in 2009 and continued to ride until 2011, when a fall during the Tour de France led him to proclaim retirement once more. After better than anticipated results with rehabilitation, however, he returned to cycling for the 2012 season, hoping to make the 2012 Olympic road race his last major competition. His victory, at nearly 39 years old, made him the oldest Olympic road racing champion, besting a record set by Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli of France in 1996. Urán’s medal, meanwhile, was the first for Columbia in the Olympic road race and Kristoff’s was Norway’s first since Dag Otto Lauritzen’s in 1984.

PosBibCompetitorNOCTime/Margin
187Aleksandr VinokurovKAZ5-45:57Gold
252Rigoberto UránCOLsame timeSilver
3122Alexander KristoffNORat 0:08Bronze
429Taylor PhinneyUSAsame time
5120Sergey LagutinUZBsame time
624Stuart O'GradyAUSsame time
718Jürgen RoelandtsBELsame time
840Grégory RastSUIsame time
98Luca PaoliniITAsame time
1082Jack BauerNZLsame time
1131Lars BoomNEDsame time
1296Jakob FuglsangDENsame time
1343Rui CostaPORsame time
143Luis León SánchezESPsame time
1585Roman KreuzigerCZEsame time
1651Sergio Luis HenaoCOLsame time
1788Andriy HryvkoUKRsame time
184Alejandro ValverdeESPsame time
1917Philippe GilbertBELsame time
2054Sylvain ChavanelFRAsame time
2159Janez BrajkovičSLOsame time
2276Fumiyuki BeppuJPNsame time
2332Robert GesinkNEDsame time
2462Aleksandr KolobnevRUSsame time
25124Lars Petter NordhaugNORsame time
261Jonathan CastroviejoESPat 0:16
2747André GreipelGERat 0:40
2816Tom BoonenBELsame time
2911Mark CavendishGBRsame time
3055Arnaud DémareFRAsame time
315Fran VentosoESPsame time
3278Murilo FischerBRAsame time
3327Tyler FarrarUSAsame time
3436Peter SaganSVKsame time
35115Andrey AmadorCRCsame time
3690Bernhard EiselAUTsame time
37101Wong Kam PoHKGsame time
3810Elia VivianiITAsame time
39140Héctor ZamarronMEXsame time
4070Daryl ImpeyRSAsame time
41107Radoslav RoginaCROsame time
4295Matti BreschelDENsame time
4386Asan BazayevKAZsame time
442José Joaquín RojasESPsame time
4574Miguel UbetoVENsame time
46112Ramūnas NavardauskasLTUsame time
4775Yukiya ArashiroJPNsame time
4842Manuel CardosoPORsame time
49102Rene MandriESTsame time
5073Jackson RodríguezVENsame time
5161Vladimir IsaychevRUSsame time
52131Yauhen HutarovichBLRsame time
53110Ivan StevićSRBsame time
54138David McCannIRLsame time
55103Aleksejs SaramotinsLATsame time
5639Martin ElmigerSUIsame time
=5797Nicki SørensenDENsame time
=57111Gediminas BagdonasLTUsame time
5969Michał KwiatkowskiPOLsame time
60104Danail PetrovBULsame time
6165Adil JelloulMARsame time
6260Ryder HesjedalCANsame time
63114Laurent DidierLUXsame time
64144Jussi VeikkanenFINsame time
6589Dmytro KrivtsovUKRsame time
66134Arnold AlcoleaCUBsame time
67106Kristijan ĐurasekCROsame time
6844Nélson OliveiraPORsame time
6972Tomás GilVENsame time
7094Lars BakDENsame time
71116Gonzalo GarridoCHIsame time
7277Daniel TeklehaimanotERIsame time
7333Sebastian LangeveldNEDsame time
7484Jan BártaCZEsame time
75108Gustav LarssonSWEsame time
76123Vegard Stake LaengenNORsame time
77133Branislau SamoylauBLRsame time
7857Grega BoleSLOsame time
7921Cadel EvansAUSsame time
8091Daniel SchornAUTsame time
8134Niki TerpstraNEDsame time
8222Simon GerransAUSsame time
8367Maciej BodnarPOLsame time
8423Matt GossAUSsame time
8556Tony GallopinFRAsame time
8641Michael SchärSUIsame time
8726Timmy DugganUSAsame time
88139Nicolas RocheIRLsame time
89137Dan MartinIRLsame time
9025Mick RogersAUSsame time
9119Greg Van AvermaetBELsame time
9228Chris HornerUSAat 0:49
9314Ian StannardGBRat 0:50
9446Bert GrabschGERsame time
9537Michael AlbasiniSUIsame time
9635Lieuwe WestraNEDsame time
9763Denis MenshovRUSat 0:54
986Sacha ModoloITAsame time
9920Stijn VandenberghBELsame time
1007Vincenzo NibaliITAat 0:56
10149Marcel SiebergGERat 1:11
10215Bradley WigginsGBRat 1:17
10330Tejay van GarderenUSAat 1:31
10445John DegenkolbGERat 2:52
10538Fabian CancellaraSUIat 5:43
1069Marco PinottiITAat 8:07
10713David MillarGBRat 9:19
10812Chris FroomeGBRat 12:27
109113Giannis TamouridisGREsame time
DNF71Maximiliano RichezeARGat 18:30overtaken1
DNF125Ahmet AkdilekTURat 21:46overtaken2
DNF109Gabor KasaSRBsame timeovertaken3
DNF99Mehdi SohrabiIRIsame timeovertaken4
DNF136Byron GuamáECUsame timeovertaken5
DNF98Ali Reza HaghiIRI
DNF80Gregolry PanizoBRA
DNF121Edvald Boasson HagenNOR
DNF81Azzedine LagabALG
DNF105Spas GyurovBUL
DNF92Muhamad Adiq Husainie OthmanMAS
DNF126Miraç KalTUR
DNF127Kemal KüçükbayTUR
DNF119Murodzhon KhalmuratovUZB
DNF79Magno NazaretBRA
DNF48Tony MartinGER
DNF117Krisztián LovassyHUN
DNF93Amir RusliMAS
DNF128Oleg BerdosMDA
DNF68Michał GołaśPOL
DNF129Andrei NechitaROU
DNF132Vasil KiryienkaBLR
DNF83Greg HendersonNZL
DNF135Giorgi NadiradzeGEO
DNF130Park Seong-BaekKOR
DNF64Soufiane HaddiMAR
DNF141Manuel RodasGUA
DNF142Dan CravenNAM
DNF66Mouhcine LahsainiMAR
DNF143Omar HasaninSYR
DNF118Jorge SotoURU
DNF50Fabio DuarteCOL
DNF53Mickaël BourgainFRA
DNF100Amir ZargariIRI
DQ58Borut BožičSLO[same time]6