The men's individual road race at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, was held on July 31, 1996. There were 183 participants from 57 nations in the race over 221.85 km, with 116 cyclists finishing. For the first time, the event was open to professionals. Previously, it was restricted to "amateurs" which included state-funded Eastern Bloc athletes. The maximum number of cyclists per nation was five, up from three in previous editions of the event. The event was won by Pascal Richard of Switzerland, the nation's first victory in the men's individual road race and first medal in the event since a bronze in 1936. Rolf Sørensen earned Denmark's third medal in the event, silver just as in 1964 and 1968. Max Sciandri similarly matched Great Britain's best result: a bronze, as in 1896 and 1956.
Background This was the 15th 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; with the re-introduction of the time trial in Atlanta, this was the first time that both events were held at the same Games. The 1996 Games were also the first to allow top professional riders to compete; this also resulted in lengthening the distance of the course and increasing the number of riders per nation (to increase teamwork opportunity). There was no clear favorite in the race. Miguel Induráin of Spain was the most prominent cyclist competing, but his skills were far more suited to the time trial—in which he would take gold three days later.
Albania, Armenia, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Oman, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan each made their debut in the men's individual road race. Great Britain made its 15th 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 221.85 kilometre course over the Buckhead Cycling Course in Atlanta. The distance had been increased from previous Olympic road races to be more consistent with professional races.Official Report, vol. 5, p. 160.
Schedule All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)
Date Time Round Wednesday, 31 July 1996 8:30 Final
Results A three-man breakout occurred with 33 kilometres to go, with Richard, Sørensen, and Sciandri getting clear of the peloton. The final sprint went to Richard. A second group of three formed as well, this time with the home-nation cyclist Andreu winning the sprint for fourth place.
Rank Cyclist Nation Time Pascal Richard 4:53:56 Rolf Sørensen Max Sciandri + 2" 4 Frankie Andreu + 1' 14" 5 Richard Virenque 6 Melcior Mauri + 1' 15" 7 Fabio Baldato + 1' 28" 8 Michele Bartoli 9 Zbigniew Spruch 10 Johan Museeuw 11 Jesper Skibby 12 Lance Armstrong 13 Dimitri Konyshev + 2' 29" 14 Serguei Outschakov 15 Wilfried Peeters + 2' 32" 16 Olaf Ludwig + 2' 36" 17 Laurent Brochard + 2' 37" 18 Arvis Piziks 19 Neil Stephens + 2' 38" 20 Erik Zabel + 2' 47" 21 Laurent Jalabert 22 Kaspars Ozers 23 Robbie McEwen + 2' 48" 24 Jaan Kirsipuu 25 Frank Vandenbroucke 26 Miguel Induráin 27 Vassili Davidenko 28 Rolf Aldag 29 Andrey Kivilev 30 Ján Svorada 31 Juris Silovs 32 Francesco Casagrande 33 Andrei Tchmil 34 Michel Lafis 35 Glenn Magnusson + 2' 49" 36 Lauri Aus 37 Maurizio Fondriest 38 Erik Dekker 39 Orlando Rodrigues 40 Brian Holm 41 Steve Bauer 42 Lars Michaelsen 43 Oleh Pankov 44 Werner Riebenbauer 45 Erik Breukink 46 Harald Morscher 47 Ruber Marín 48 Pedro Lópes 49 Andres Lauk + 2' 50" 50 Slawomir Chrzanowski 51 Pavel Tonkov 52 Beat Zberg 53 Alexander Vinokourov 54 Peter Wrolich 55 Markus Andersson 56 Aart Vierhouten 57 Joona Laukka 58 Pyotr Ugryumov 59 Milan Dvorščík 60 Johan Bruyneel + 2' 51" 61 Douglas Ryder 62 Georg Totschnig 63 Kari Myyryläinen 64 Michael Barry 65 Damian McDonald 66 Ric Reid 67 Abraham Olano + 2' 52" 68 Ján Valach 69 Pavel Kavetsky 70 Robert Pintarič 71 Eduardo Graciano + 2' 53" 72 David McCann 73 Veaceslav Oriol 74 Gregory Randolph 75 Gord Fraser 76 George Hincapie 77 Manuel Fernández 78 Nuno Marta 79 Malcolm Elliott 80 Eric Wohlberg + 2' 54" 81 Peter Luttenberger 82 Mario Cipollini 83 Didier Rous 84 Javier de Jesús Zapata 85 Aleksandr Shefer 86 Óscar Giraldo 87 Bjarne Riis + 2' 55" 88 Jacques Landry 89 Andrey Teteryuk 90 Eduardo Uribe 91 Mauro Ribeiro 92 Dainis Ozols 93 Steve Hegg 94 Tomasz Brożyna + 2' 56" 95 Remigijus Lupeikis 96 Raido Kodanipork 97 Blayne Wikner 98 Stephen Hodge + 2' 57" 99 John Tanner 100 Djamolidine Abdoujaparov 101 Marino Alonso 102 Patrick Jonker 103 Yevgeny Berzin 104 Alex Zülle + 2' 58" 105 Rolf Järmann 106 Romāns Vainšteins 107 Frédéric Moncassin + 2' 59" 108 Tristan Hoffman 109 Tom Steels + 3' 00" 110 Thomas Frischknecht + 4' 08" 111 Danny Nelissen + 4' 12" 112 Cândido Barbosa + 7' 33" 113 Yevgeny Golovanov + 11' 42" 114 Pavel Zaduban 115 Hussein Monsalve 116 Irving Aguilar + 11' 43" — Besnik Musaj Gustavo Artacho Rubén Pegorín Arsen Ghazaryan Lucien Dirksz Aleksandr Sharapov Oleg Bondarik Vyacheslav German Elliot Hubbard Hernandes Quadri Márcio May Daniel Rogelim Jamil Suaiden Stefan Baraud Víctor Garrido Dubán Ramírez Raúl Montaña Héctor Chiles Paulo Caicedo Pedro Rodríguez Lauri Resik Brian Smith Michael Rich Uwe Peschel Anton Villatoro Edwin Santos Felipe López Marlon Paniagua Omar Ochoa Wong Kam Po László Bodrogi Kazuyuki Manabe Osamu Sumida Park Min-su Yousef Shadi Raimondas Rumšas Ivanas Romanovas Linas Balčiūnas Raimondas Vilčinskas Adan Juárez Domingo González Igor Pugaci Ruslan Ivanov Igor Bonciucov Oleg Tonoritchi Dashnyamyn Tömör-Ochir Glen Mitchell Scott Guyton Brian Fowler Svein-Gaute Hølestøl Youssef Khanfar Al-Shakali Dariusz Baranowski José Azevedo Olympedia shows Azevedo as finishing in 114th place at 11' 43" behind the leader, but both the Official Report and IOC webpage indicate he did not finish. Róbert Nagy Miroslav Lipták Michael Andersson Chen Chih-hao Mykhailo Khalilov Volodymyr Pulnikov Ali Sayed Darwish Gregorio Bare Ricardo Guedes Manuel Guevara Carlos Maya José Balaustre Rubén Abreu Timothy Jones
References
Sources Official Report