The men's individual road race at the 1952 Summer Olympics was held on 2 August, the 2nd last day of the Olympics on an 11,2 km course running counter-clockwise from Käpylä through Pakila and Maunula and back to Käpylä. The course was circled seventeen times, so the total length of the competition was 190,4 km. About half of the road was hard-surfaced, the other half sand-surfaced. There were 154 entries from 31 nations and 111 participants from 30 nations. Each nation could enter up to four cyclists; nations entering at least three cyclists had the scores of their best three finishers summed for the team road race event. The individual event was won by André Noyelle of Belgium, the nation's first victory in the men's individual road race. His teammate Robert Grondelaers took silver. Edi Ziegler earned Germany's first medal in the event since 1896 with his bronze.
Background
This was the fourth appearance of the event, previously held in 1896 and then at every Summer Olympics since 1936. It replaced the individual time trial event that had been held from 1912 to 1932 (and which would be reintroduced alongside the road race in 1996). France had won the last two Olympic road races. Gianni Ghidini of Italy was the 1951 world champion.
Japan, Romania, the Soviet Union, and Vietnam each made their debut in the men's individual road race. Great Britain made its fourth appearance in the event, the only nation to have competed in each appearance to date.
Competition format and course
The mass-start race was on a course that covered 17 laps of an 11.2 kilometres circuit on Koskelantie Street in Käpylä, for a total of 190.4 kilometres. The course was "not overly difficult in terms of climbs, but had few flat sections, consisting of rolling hills throughout." Lapped cyclists were eliminated and could not finish.Official Report, p. 542.
Schedule
All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)
Date Time Round Saturday, 2 August 1952 11:00 Final
Results
Mårtensson made an early attack, taking a 45-second lead during lap 6, but was caught by the peloton in lap 8. By halfway, there was a clear lead group of nine cyclists. The Belgian riders Noyelle, Grondelaers, and Victor broke away during lap 11, with Ziegler and Maenan joining them. Maenan fell away from the front pack at lap 14. Noyelle made his break at the start of lap 17, taking an easy lead to win the race. Grondelaers separated from the other two remaining leaders with five kilometres to go, taking silver. The bronze came down to a sprint between Ziegler and Victor, with the German winning to prevent a Belgian medal sweep.
Behind the lead pack, a bad crash in lap 9 resulted in about 20 cyclists falling, with many unable to continue due to damage to their bicycles. The remaining second group of 11 cyclists continued until lap 15, when Bruni separated into clear fifth place and the other 10 cyclists finished close together.
Rank Cyclist Nation Time André Noyelle 5:06:03.4 Robert Grondelaers 5:06:51.2 Edi Ziegler 5:07:47.5 4 Lucien Victor 5:07:52.0 5 Dino Bruni 5:10:54.0 6 Vincenzo Zucconelli 5:11:16.5 7 Gianni Ghidini 5:11:16.8 8 Oskar Zeissner 5:11:18.5 9 Hans Andresen 5:11:18.510 Arend van 't Hoft 5:11:19.011 André Moes 5:11:19.012 Jacques Anquetil 5:11:19.013 Alfred Tonello 5:11:20.014 Roger Ludwig 5:11:20.015 Bruno Monti 5:11.35.016 Yngve Lundh 5:12:15.217 Rolf Graf 5:12:45.318 Stig Mårtensson 5:13:00.019 Jørgen Frank Rasmussen 5:14:09.420 Josef Schraner 5:15:06.121 Allan Carlsson 5:16:19.122 Jan Plantaz 5:16:19.123 Claude Rouer 5:16:19.124 Odd Berg 5:17:30.225 Erling Kristiansen 5:17:30.226 Desmond Robinson 5:18:08.927 Brian Robinson 5:18:08.928 Lorang Christiansen 5:20:01.329 Constantin Stănescu 5:20:01.430 Alois Lampert 5:20:06.631 Graham Vines 5:22:33.232 Donald Sheldon 5:22:33.333 Virgilio Pereyra 5:22:33.434 Peter Pryor 5:22:33.535 Jim Nevin 5:22:33.636 Thomas O'Rourke 5:22:33.737 Wedell Østergaard 5:22:34.138 Luis Angel de los Santos 5:22:34.339 Hugo Machado 5:23:33.740 Yevgeny Klevtsov 5:23:34.041 Marin Niculescu 5:23:34.142 Raino Koskenkorva 5:23:34.643 Ewald Hasler 5:23:34.844 Victor Georgescu 5:24:27.545 Ángel Romero 5:24:33.946 Petar Georgiev 5:24:34.047 Luu Quan 5:24:34.148 Paul Maue 5:24:44.549 Adrie Voorting 5:24:44.650 Fausto Lurati 5:24:58.051 Nicolas Morn 5:26:25.052 Helge Hansen 5:27:08.8 — Ken Caves Peter Nelson Walter Bortel Franz Wimmer Arthur Mannsbarth Rik Van Looy Boyan Kotsev Ilya Velchev Milcho Rosev Hernán Masanés Héctor Droguett Héctor Mellado Hugo Miranda Jan Veselý Karel Nesl Milan Perič Stanislav Svoboda Paul Backman Paul Nyman Ruben Forsblom Roland Bezamat Walter Becker Leslie Ingman István Lang István Schillerwein Lajos Látó Raj Kumar Mehra Netai Bysack Pradip Bode Suprovat Chakravarty Kihei Tomioka Masazumi Tajima Tadashi Kato Tamotsu Chikanari Gwon Ik-Hyeon Im Sang-Jo Kim Ho-Sun Jean Schmit Francisco Lozano Julio Cepeda Ricardo García Jules Maenen Muhammad Naqi Mallick Imtiaz Bhatti Petre Nuță George Estman Alfred Swift Robert Fowler Anatoly Kolesov Nikolay Bobarenko Vladimir Kryuchkov Lars Nordwall Kobi Scherer David Rhoads Ronald Rhoads Julio Sobrera Chau Phuoc Vinh Nguyen Duc Hien Le Van Phuoc
References
Notes