The men's race on Saturday was dominated by a strong breakaway, including Michal Kwiatkowski and break specialist Jarlinson Pantano. The six breakers remained clear through the four laps of the first circuit of the Grumari and Grota Funda climbs, and holding down the 20km run back down the coast to the decisive final circuit, the Vista Chinesa, with maximum climbs of 24%.
The circuit served to shake up the leaders, with Damiano Caruso, Geraint Thomas and Greg van Avermaet bridging to the break, followed later by Sergio Henao, Vicenzo Nibali, Richie Porte, Adam Yates, Jakob Fuglsang and Rafal Majka.
Conspicuous by their absence in the lead group throughout were the Spaniards, including Alejandro Valverde, the pre-race favourite according to our TLG poll. He, along with Joaquim Rodriguez (in his final race before retirement) were too slow to react, eventually joining a third chase group, but never threatening the leaders, and Valverde accepted defeat 20km from home, while Rodriguez rallied to claim fifth in his swansong.
The Dutch had an even worse time. With a strong lineup of Tom Dumoulin, Steven Kruijswijk, Bauke Mollema, Wout Poels, things started badly with Dumoulin withdrawing after just a few km, and only got worse from there. Mollema suffered a puncture and mechanical on the tough cobbled sections in the first circuit, Poels crashed after losing time, and Kruijswijk never looked capable of staying with the peloton.
But for bad fortune, look no further than the leaders on the descent that would quickly become infamous. Going down it for the final time, roughly 20km from home and averaging around 10%, Nibali, Majka and Henao had gone clear, followed by an elite group of chasers. Nibali and Henao fell from the lead group, leaving Majka alone out front, while Thomas slid off when well placed in the chase group.
Two of those chasers eventually caught Majka in the closing stages, van Avermaet and Fuglsang having stayed clear of the carnage and bridged across. Majka had nothing left to contest the sprint on the Copacabana, leaving van Avermaet to outsprint Fuglsang to take the gold medal, while Majka's disappointment at defeat was compensated somewhat with bronze.
skysports.com
The next day's women's race was a quieter affair in the early going, but with a much more dramatic ending. A group of seven had gone clear into the final circuit (which the women covered just once, rather than the men's three laps), with the Dutch well represented, with Marianne Vos, Annemiek van Vleuten and Anna van der Breggen all showing at the front.
As with Chris Froome 24 hours earlier, Lizzie Armitstead missed the decisive attack, and was left to chase in futility, in conditions not suiting her. An adequate but not great climber, she was never able to stay with the stronger riders, while Froome was limited by a lack of one-day skills, preferring longer, less punchy climbs.
Into the descent from Vista Chinesa, van Vleuten had attacked along with USA's Mara Abbott, with a chase trio of van der Breggen, Elisa Longo Borghini and Emma Johansson a minute behind.
Disaster then struck for van Vleuten, getting the back end out on a right hander, somersaulting into the gutter in probably the scariest crash since Johnny Hoogerland's flip into barbed wire in the 2011 Tour de France.
Abbott was left out in front alone, and as with Majka yesterday, couldn't hold on, but hers was a more heartbreaking effort. She was caught just 200m from the line, and by a group of three, meaning she had to settle for a medal-less 4th. Anna van der Breggen jumped clear as they caught Abbott, and was never challenged, taking gold for the Netherlands.
Tom Jenkins
But all of the sport pales in comparison to the fairly evident safety issues faced by the riders on the course. The first circuit had a punishing cobbled section, which caused several dropped chains, and bounced a lot of riders' water bottles loose. Those bottles did seem to be the cause of a crash in the first lap for the men, as Turkey's Ahmet Orken went down after apparently hitting a dropped bidon.
The second circuit, particularly the run down from Vista Chinesa, was treacherous. A narrow, winding, steep descent, with a thick canopy of trees causing either rippling shadows or blocking the light altogether. On either side of the road was a straight drop of roughly a foot, with a small concrete wall on the other side, forming a ditch.
It was a recipe for disaster, and the organisers' disregard for safety was shown by their reaction to Richie Porte's crash on the second lap. He went into the catch fencing on the left hand hairpin at the Vista Chinesa itself, and the mangled, limp fencing was left unfixed the next day. Had another accident happened at the same point, the rider could have gone through the fencing and down the drop below.
Fortunately, that didn't happen, but it was by no means the end of the crashes. Leaders Vincenzo Nibali and Sergio Henao both went down on a right hander in the final stages of the men's race. The tv bikes were, to their credit, giving the riders plenty of space, and as a result weren't close enough to get a proper view of the crash, only catching the two as Nibali was rolling down the hill, his bike tangled with Henao's a few yards earlier.
BBC Sport
Geraint Thomas was the next to crash, sliding off a little further down, ending up in the ditch at the side of the road, but luckily unhurt, managing to remount and finish 11th.
Annemiek van Vleuten was, of course, not so lucky on the same corner the next day. While the riders all knew the risks after the carnage of the men's race, rain made the descent slippery, and the prospect of a gold medal led the riders to keep pushing. She ran wide on the right hander, the back end stepped out and sent her flying over the handlebars, landing back-first on the wall of the ditch, and scarily head-first in the ditch itself.
It was a nervous wait for news on her condition, with nothing coming through until after the race. Much was said about her being described as 'ok', but considering the initial fears of many were grave, even that was good news. She was taken to hospital quickly, where she was diagnosed with a concussion and three fractured vertebrae in her lower back. It could have been much, much worse.
Those injuries, coupled with fractures to Porte's shoulder, Henao's pelvis and Nibali's collarbone, add up to an unacceptable casualty list for two races. Whenever the course was decided, and what little safety measures that were added were put in place, more should have been done. A few metres of catch fencing, and foam padding on the ends of walls and boulders on the descent, were not enough.I am now in the hospital with some injuries and fractures, but will be fine. Most of all super disappointed after best race of my career.— Annemiek van Vleuten (@AvVleuten) August 8, 2016
I appreciate a desire to even out the style of the events, and with a sprint-focused event in 2012, the organisers wanted one for punchers and climbers this time round. But if a safe route couldn't be found, it should not have been used. Four top quality riders over two days with broken bones is too high a cost, and one that could, and should, have been avoided. Whether it was the UCI, the IOC, or someone else who decided and ratified the route, they should be held accountable for the injuries suffered.
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