Specialized : Riders Club

Canada's Blog

Olympic Road Race Wrap-up

posted by id* at 03:36 PM on August 13, 2008

The men's Olympic Road Race started right on time Saturday morning Beijing time and produced one of the best one-day races of the year. With all the major favorites here and the smaller teams - the maximum team size count is five at the Olympics - the race was sure to be animated from the beginning and with seven trips up the 11km climb sure to be hard for the duration of the race.

The riders didn't disappoint. Within the first hour a group of two broke off the front and then by the ninety minute point a large group of 25 formed a few minutes in front of the peloton. With Italy and Germany represented in the break the presure was off favorites Paolo Bettini and Stefan Schumacher. While the USA and Russia used up some of their athletes chasing the rest of the favorites came along for the ride to the Great Wall and the start of the seven circuits.

Playing team tactics the Spanish team and the Italian team rode with patience for the first half of the race and as the speed picked up put themselves in a great position for the last half of the race.

Late in the race the break of 25 was caught and the real fireworks began. With two laps to go the Spanish Armada went to the front and put the pressure on. This reduced the front group to about 30 riders and on the last lap Andy Schleck of Luxembourg attacked hard on the climb taking Davide Rebellin from Italy, Sammy Sanchez from Spain, Michael Rogers from Australia and Alexandr Kolobnev of Russia with him. As they build a 15 second lead a second attack from Schleck put Rogers and Kolobnev off the pace.

Coming into the final 10km downhill to toward the finish the front trio worked together but a huge attack from World Time Trial Champion Fabian Cancellara bridged up to Rogers and Kolobnev and at the base of the 500m climb to the finish all 6 were back together.

Kolobnev lead out the sprint but Sanchez and Rebellin quickly passed him with Sanchez taking the Olympic Gold Medal by a tire width. Cancellara finished with the bronze in a huge display of strength that has to leave everyone else expecting silver at the Time Trial on Wednesday.

World Champion and defending Olympic Champion Paolo Bettini raced a smart race, but with his teammate Rebellin up the road was neutralized for the final.

Specialized sponsored athletes did incredibly well all race long with Davide Rebellin winning a silver medal on his Tarmac SL2!

Other Specialized athletes in the top 20 include:
Mario Aerts of Belgium in S-Works Helmet and Optics
Levi Leipheimer of the USA in Specialized Optics
Cadel Evans of Australia in S-Works Helmet
Christian Vande Velde of the USA in Specialized shoes
Paolo Bettini of Italy on a Tarmac SL2