Olympic Road Race Review - From London

Olympic Podium. Gold medal Vinokourov center,
 Silver Uran left and Bronze Kristoff right.

LONDON - Alexander Vinokourov (Kazakhstan) easily won a two-up sprint over Rigoberto Uran (Colombia) to take a shocking gold medal win in  his final career road race at 38 years old (he will finish career in the time trial on Wednesday). Alexander Kristoff (Norway) took the bronze, beating the rest of the remains of the breakaway that stayed away to the finish in a sprint.

The win by Vinokourov has already been met with mixed reaction. For much of his career, Vino (as many of his fans call him) has been popular for his attacking style and willingness to drop time in the interest of attacking and wins. At the same time, Vino was long suspected of doping, having ridden much of his career with the notorious T-Mobile team (Jan Ullrich, doper extraordinaire), and then he was busted for an illegal blood transfusion during the 2007 Tour de France. This has made him an extremely polarizing figure, especially as he returned to his attacking style after his suspension ended and won Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Stage 13 of the Tour de France, all while being unrepentant for his previous doping sins. At his LBL win, Vino was booed mercilessly by the fans as he was on the winner's podium and many have still never forgiven him. This sentiment continued today as much of the British cycling media went ballistic on twitter after the race with some outright accusing him of doping even now and hoping he would be DQ'ed (I would argue some of this is frustration that Great Britain was unable to do what was needed to Mark Cavendish to the finish line with the front group).

As for the overwhelmingly favored British, the question of course is 'What happened?' What happened is a confluence of events that should have been easy to see but nobody really realized was likely to happen until after the race. The first is the small team sizes. When the British team dominated the World Championship RR in Copenhagen last October, it did so by controlling the whole race and getting help from a couple of other sprint minded teams to deliver Cavendish to the line with the front group. That was never going to work here as teams are made up of only five riders instead of nine. That limit makes it much more difficult to control the race and limit attacks from happening. Also, there were no race radios in this race. The most striking example of this was the composition of the final breakaway. First of all, it was huge, numbering over 30. Second, somehow Fabian Cancellara and three of his Swiss teammates got into the group. That is a terrible mistake to make given Cancellara's talent (more on him later). The final part that really hurt Great Britain was the distance and length of time after the Tour de France. All but Ian Stannard rode the Tour de France. Combine that with the 250 km distance and the five man teams and there were some tired legs. Both Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins tried and couldn't bring the final breakaway back before pulling off spent. With nobody else willing to work, Britain just burned their legs basically from the opening moments of the race.

Race at the startline. 10 AM London time.

Still, that the break got away tells nothing of how Vinokourov got the win. For that, he needs to thank Cancellara's suddenly suspect bike handling. Cancellara badly misjudged a turn with about 20 km to go and went should first into the barrier. Given the composition of the group at that point, Cancellara was the odds on favorite to win from that spot in the race and his crash reopened the door for everyone else. With the break still going towards the finish but seeming somewhat confused, Vinokourov and Uran launched an attack. Normally, this first attack from the group is doomed to total failure, but then nobody really chased. Vinokourov and Uran (both with few teammates in the race) just rode away from the field leading to the sprint and the shocking conclusion.

As for the sprinters, Andre Greipel (Germany) came in first among them in 27^th place followed by Tom Boonen (Belgium) and Cavendish.

For men's road cycling, next up in the time trial on Wednesday. After Cancellara's crash, Bradley Wiggins is now an overwhelming favorite in the race as Cancellara may not start and will certainly be diminished and world champion Tony Martin (Germany) is still recovering from his injuries suffered both in the Tour de France and on Monday while doing course recon. Given that, Wiggins biggest competition may come from Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) who was third in the final Tour de France Time Trial and appears to be in impeccable form right now.