The men's individual road race was a cycling event at the 2004 Summer Olympics. It was held on 14 August 2004. There were 144 competitors from 43 nations. The maximum number of cyclists per nation had been set at five since professionals were allowed in 1996. The event was won by Paolo Bettini of Italy, the nation's first victory in the men's individual road race since 1992 and fifth overall (three more than any other nation). Sérgio Paulinho's silver was Portugal's first medal in the event. Belgium earned its first medal in the men's road race since 1964 with Axel Merckx's bronze.
Summary
In a race that showed numerous break away attempts, it wasn't until Paolo Bettini and Sérgio Paulinho broke away from the group with a couple of laps remaining and opened up a comfortable gap on the final lap that an idea of the medal positions could be gained. With the peloton giving up the chase of the leaders, Axel Merckx broke away to open up a sufficient gap for him to take bronze. Bettini out sprinted Paulinho for the gold, finishing in a time of 5 hours 41 minutes and 44 seconds. Among the other pre-race favourites, World Champion Igor Astarloa of Spain crashed on the opening lap, and 2000 Olympic road race champion Jan Ullrich finished among the peloton in 19th place. A number of other top names in the field, including Germany's Andreas Klöden and Russia's Viatcheslav Ekimov, pulled out before the end of the race, presumably with the Time Trial race, to be held four days later, in mind.
Background
This was the 17th 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. Of the top 10 cyclists from 2000, all three medalists plus three more cyclists returned: gold medalist Jan Ullrich of Germany, silver medalist Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan, bronze medalist Andreas Klöden of Germany, sixth-place finisher Frank Høj of Denmark, eighth-place finisher George Hincapie of the United States, and ninth-place finisher Paolo Bettini of Italy. Lance Armstrong, having just won his sixth consecutive Tour de France, did not compete. Reigning world champion Igor Astarloa of Spain did compete.
Serbia and Montenegro made its debut in the men's individual road race. Great Britain made its 17th 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 211.2 kilometre course in Athens' Plateia Kozia. Using a city-streets course, "[r]ather than riding in the hilly country outside of Athens", resulted in a "relatively flat course" that did not challenge the professional peloton.
Schedule
All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)
Date Time Round Saturday, 14 August 2004 12:45 Final
Results
There were 75 finishers, with three (plus one non-finisher) later disqualified for doping.
Rank Cyclist Nation Time Paolo Bettini 5h 41′ 44″ Sérgio Paulinho 5h 41′ 45″ Axel Merckx 5h 41′ 52″4 Erik Zabel 5h 41′ 56″5 Andrej Hauptman 5h 41′ 56″6 Kim Kirchen 5h 41′ 56″7 Roger Hammond 5h 41′ 56″8 Frank Høj 5h 41′ 56″9 Kurt Asle Arvesen 5h 41′ 56″10 Alexandr Kolobnev 5h 41′ 56″11 Robbie McEwen 5h 41′ 56″12 Markus Zberg 5h 41′ 56″13 Ciarán Power 5h 41′ 56″14 Marcus Ljungqvist 5h 41′ 56″15 Julian Dean 5h 41′ 56″16 Fränk Schleck 5h 41′ 56″17 Max van Heeswijk 5h 41′ 56″ Tyler Hamilton 5h 41′ 56″19 Jan Ullrich 5h 41′ 56″20 Thomas Voeckler 5h 41′ 56″21 Serhiy Honchar 5h 41′ 56″22 Georg Totschnig 5h 41′ 56″23 Kyrylo Pospyeyev 5h 41′ 56″ George Hincapie 5h 41′ 56″25 Bo Hamburger 5h 41′ 56″26 Tadej Valjavec 5h 41′ 56″27 Nuno Ribeiro 5h 41′ 56″28 Bobby Julich 5h 41′ 56″29 Martin Elmiger 5h 41′ 56″30 Gerhard Trampusch 5h 41′ 56″31 Santiago Botero 5h 41′ 56″ Michael Barry 5h 41′ 56″33 Stuart O'Grady 5h 41′ 56″34 Unai Etxebarria 5h 41′ 56″35 Alexander Vinokourov 5h 41′ 56″36 Luis Felipe Laverde 5h 41′ 56″37 Evgeni Petrov 5h 41′ 56″38 Daniele Nardello 5h 42′ 03″39 Luca Paolini 5h 42′ 03″40 Peter van Petegem 5h 42′ 03″41 Erik Dekker 5h 42′ 29″42 Romāns Vainšteins 5h 43′ 03″43 Gorazd Štangelj 5h 43′ 20″44 Laurent Brochard 5h 44′ 13″45 Benoît Joachim 5h 44′ 13″46 Cristian Moreni 5h 44′ 13″47 Alejandro Valverde 5h 44′ 13″48 Richard Virenque 5h 44′ 13″49 Philippe Gilbert 5h 44′ 13″50 Uroš Murn 5h 44′ 13″51 Gerrit Glomser 5h 45′ 21″52 Karsten Kroon 5h 47′ 13″53 Sergei Yakovlev 5h 48′ 48″54 Ruslan Ivanov 5h 50′ 35″55 Lars Michaelsen 5h 50′ 35″56 Tomasz Brożyna 5h 50′ 35″57 Yasutaka Tashiro 5h 50′ 35″58 Rene Andrle 5h 50′ 35″59 Sergey Lagutin 5h 50′ 35″60 Nicki Soerensen 5h 50′ 35″61 Janek Tombak 5h 50′ 35″62 Murilo Fischer 5h 50′ 35″63 Ján Svorada 5h 50′ 35″64 Jens Voigt 5h 50′ 35″65 Ondřej Sosenka 5h 50′ 35″66 Igor Pugaci 5h 50′ 35″67 Filippo Pozzato 5h 50′ 35″68 Yaroslav Popovych 5h 50′ 35″69 Ryan Cox 5h 50′ 35″70 Andrey Kashechkin 5h 50′ 35″71 Martin Riška 5h 51′ 28″72 Gustav Larsson 5h 51′ 28″73 Andrey Mizurov 5h 51′ 28″74 László Bodrogi 5h 56′ 45″75 Dawid Krupa 6h 00′ 25″ Levi Leipheimer — Goncalo Amorim Óscar Freire Igor González de Galdeano Sylvain Chavanel Michael Rasmussen Charlie Wegelius Thomas Löfkvist Erki Pütsep Jeremy Yates Andris Naudužs Mark Scanlon Matej Jurčo Viatcheslav Ekimov Gord Fraser Christophe Moreau Slawomir Kohut Amir Zargari Iván Gutiérrez Win Vansevenant Marc Wauters Michael Rogers Fabian Cancellara Grégory Rast Servais Knaven Victor Hugo Pena Grisales Morten Hegreberg Tiaan Kannemeyer José Chacón Dmitar Gospodinov Evgeny Vakker Andreas Klöden Michael Rich Jason McCartney Baden Cooke Matt White Rubens Bertogliati Denis Menchov Vladimir Duma Yuriy Krivtsov Radosław Romanik Sylwester Szmyd Julian Winn Maxim Iglinskiy Bernhard Eisel Cândido Barbosa Magnus Bäckstedt Andrus Aug Thor Hushovd Mads Kaggestad Heath Blackgrove Robin Reid Márcio May Eric Wohlberg Alexandre Usov Marcelo Arriagada Wong Kam Po Ivan Stević Michal Hrazdíra Robert Hunter Shinri Suzuki Abbas Saeidi Tanha Jaan Kirsipuu Luciano Pagliarini Stuart Dangerfield Vladimir Karpets Igor Astarloa Michael Boogerd Marlon Pérez Arango
References
External links Official Olympic Report