The men's individual road race at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, was held on Wednesday, 27 September 2000 (the second day of competition of the games) with a race distance of 239.4 km. The estimated global TV audience was 600 million. They were specifically held in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. There were 154 cyclists from 41 nations competing. The maximum number of cyclists per nation had been five since professionals were allowed in 1996. The event was won by Jan Ullrich of Germany, the nation's first victory in the men's individual road race (though Olaf Ludwig of East Germany had won in 1988). His teammate Andreas Klöden's bronze made this race the first time one nation had taken two medals in the event since 1988—when West Germany had done so by taking silver and bronze (making an all-German podium then, with Ludwig's gold). Alexander Vinokourov took silver for Kazakhstan's first medal in the event.
Background
This was the 16th 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; the time trial had been re-introduced in 1996 alongside the road race. The change to including professionals in 1996 meant that 2000 was the first Games that saw significant repeat competitors in the event (which had typically seen top cyclists turn professional after one appearance); Atlanta silver medalist Rolf Sørensen of Denmark and bronze medalist Max Sciandri of Great Britain returned. Favorites were "difficult" to select for the one-day race. Lance Armstrong (1999 and 2000 Tour de France winner) and Jan Ullrich (1997 Tour de France winner) were among the prominent cyclists, but the road race was a very different event from a Tour and "neither was considered a great sprinter".
Egypt and Kyrgyzstan each made their debut in the men's individual road race. Great Britain made its 16th 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 239.4 kilometre course over the Cycling Road Course in Sydney's Centennial Parklands. The distance had been increased from previous Olympic road races (particularly pre-1996, though the distance was nearly 20 kilometres more than 1996 as well) to be more consistent with professional races.
Schedule
All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)
Date Time Round Wednesday, 27 September 2000 10:00 Final
Results
A three-cyclist breakout occurred with 25 kilometres to go: Ullrich and two of his Deutsche Telekom teammates, Vinokourov and Klöden.
Rank Cyclist Nation Time Jan Ullrich 5:29:08 Alexander Vinokourov + 9" Andreas Klöden + 12"4 Michele Bartoli + 1' 26"5 Laurent Jalabert 6 Frank Høj 7 Piotr Wadecki 8 George Hincapie 9 Paolo Bettini 10 Dmitri Konychev 11 Danilo Di Luca + 1' 29"12 Axel Merckx Lance Armstrong 14 Erik Zabel + 1' 38"15 Max van Heeswijk 16 Gordon Fraser 17 Óscar Freire 18 Jaan Kirsipuu 19 Robbie McEwen 20 Zbigniew Spruch 21 Markus Zberg 22 Arvis Piziks 23 Peter Wrolich 24 Rolf Aldag 25 Léon van Bon 26 Andrej Hauptman 27 Vladimir Duma 28 Glenn Magnusson 29 Pavel Tonkov 30 Henk Vogels 31 Ruber Marín 32 Uroš Murn 33 Nico Mattan 34 Fred Rodriguez 35 Maximiliano Sciandri 36 Serguei Ivanov 37 Oscar Camenzind 38 John Tanner 39 Serguei Outchakov 40 Nicki Sørensen 41 Gerrit Glomser 42 Olexandr Fedenko 43 David McCann 44 Raimondas Rumšas 45 Laurent Brochard 46 Andrei Teteriouk 47 Christopher Jenner 48 Zbigniew Piątek 49 Tyler Hamilton 50 Omar Pumar 51 Matthias Buxhofer 52 Antonio Cruz 53 Alexandr Shefer 54 Mauro Gianetti 55 Erki Pütsep 56 Jens Voigt 57 Sergei Yakovlev 58 Piotr Przydział 59 Rolf Sørensen 60 Abraham Olano 61 Julian Dean 62 Christophe Moreau 63 Richard Virenque 64 Laurent Dufaux 65 Volodimir Gustov 66 Francesco Casagrande 67 Marc Wauters 68 Alex Zülle 69 Marco Pantani 70 Pavel Padrnos 71 Rik Verbrugghe 72 Eric Wohlberg 73 Andrei Kivilev 74 Ciarán Power + 5' 50"75 Viacheslav Ekimov 76 Tomáš Konečný 77 Stuart O'Grady + 7' 06"78 Bjørnar Vestøl 79 Peter Van Petegem 80 Tristan Hoffman 81 Andris Reiss + 12' 53"82 José Medina + 12' 54"83 Manuel Guevara + 13' 35"84 Carlos Maya 85 Scott Guyton + 14' 13"86 David George + 16' 43"87 Milan Dvorščík + 22' 45"88 Alexis Méndez + 23' 39"89 Murilo Fischer 90 Martin Riška 91 Óscar Pineda 92 Pedro Pablo Pérez + 23' 40" — Scott McGrory Matt White René Haselbacher Thomas Mühlbacher Czeslaw Lukaszewicz Brian Walton Luis Fernando Sepúlveda Santiago Botero Jhon García Fredy González Víctor Hugo Peña Radim Kořínek Ján Svorada Lars Michaelsen Michael Sandstød Mahmoud Abbas Amer El-Nady Mohamed Abdel Fattah Mohamed Kholafy Juan Carlos Domínguez Santos González Miguel Ángel Martín Perdiguero Lauri Aus Innar Mändoja Janek Tombak Christophe Capelle Nick Craig Rob Hayles Jeremy Hunt Jazy Garcia Hossein Askari Ahad Kazemi Yoshiyuki Abe Evgeny Vakker Raivis Belohvoščiks Andris Naudužs Dainis Ozols Artūras Kasputis Remigijus Lupeikis Saulius Šarkauskas Erik Dekker Koos Moerenhout Kurt Asle Arvesen Svein Gaute Hølestøl Thor Hushovd Glen Mitchell Piotr Chmielewski José Azevedo Bruno Castanheira Vítor Gamito Orlando Rodrigues Robert Hunter Evgeni Petrov Martin Hvastija Tadej Valjavec Roman Broniš Róbert Nagy Magnus Bäckstedt Michel Lafis Martin Rittsel Serhiy Honchar Gregorio Bare
References
Sources Official Report of the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics available at https://web.archive.org/web/20060622162855/http://www.la84foundation.org/5va/reports_frmst.htm