Less than one week after the conclusion of the grueling Tour de France, all eyes in the bicycle racing world turned to the Olympics and the question if Tadej Pogačar could follow-up his second consecutive TdF win with Olympic Gold for Slovenia, as finalists in the Tour literally raced from the award ceremony in Paris to catch their flights from Charles de Gaulle to Narita Tokyo to meet the deadline for COVID screening for the Tokyo Games.
There was also speculation if Belgian Wout van Aert, who snatched the final TdF Stage from Mark Cavendish with a herculean final sprint, would challenge Pogačar for the Gold.
What the punters didn't count on was Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, a mountain goat of a climber with a respectable TdF, pulling out the stops to break-away from the leaders 6km before the end of the 234km race to claim a definitive win as he crossed the finish line virtually unchallenged at 6:05:26, a full minute seven seconds before his followers to claim only the second Olympic Gold Medal for his country.
With just enough time to catch his breath, Carapaz and the world then witnessed a racehorse photo finish as van Aert repeated his cannibal act to snatch Silver from Pogačar by what seems to have been a centimeter of rubber, with BOTH logging time of 6:06:33.
NUTS! It’s is reasonable to wonder if Pogačar should have ditched the water bottles up the road.
Tres Amigos
As it happened
Just my two cents here, but despite the commercialism, politics and controversy about COVID, and despite all the complaining by non-participants, the Olympics provide the athletes a goal, an opportunity for achievement, and a positive way to inspire their country and the world.
¡Felicitaciones, Ecuador!