TRISTAN de Lange failed to finish the men’s cycling road race at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Saturday after being pulled off about half way through the 234km race.
De Lange, however, gave a brave performance, leading the peloton at a stage and even made a breakaway to try and catch the early leaders. He was, however, once again caught by the peloton and eventually pulled off by the ‘broom wagon’ with 122km to go, after being unable to make it to the finish within the permitted time.
Richard Carapaz of Ecuador went on to win the gold medal after an arduous six hours five minutes and 26 seconds in the saddle, while Wout van Aert of Belgium just pipped Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar to second place, with both finishing 1:07 behind the leader.
A total of 126 cyclists from 57 nations started the race at Fuji International Speedway, about 96km from Tokyo, with the first breakaway of eight cyclists already coming after only 1,5km.
The group, which included Nicholas Dlamini from South Africa, gradually pulled away from the peloton, and after 60km they had already built up a lead of more than 18 minutes.
De Lange, meanwhile, had gone to the front of the peloton and after 61km pulled away to try and catch the leaders. He managed to close the gap by more than a minute, but was eventually caught by the peloton again after 87km.
After 95km he was dropped from the pack and after 112km he was pulled off by the broom wagon with three other riders, after falling too far behind.
At the half way mark the leading group were still about 14 minutes ahead of the peloton, and with 90km to go, the gap had been closed to six minutes.
With more cyclists being pulled off by the broom wagon and the peloton splintering, the lead started changing as the cyclists hit the notorious Mukuni Pass with about 55km to go.
Dlamini and Juraj Sagan of Slovakia were dropped from the leading group, while the remaining three leaders, were hauled in by the peloton with 48km to go.
Several more breakaway attempts followed, while the leading peloton was whittled down to 13 riders, but the decisive break came when Carapaz and Brandon McNulty of the United States broke away with 24,4km to go.
The two increased their lead to about 20 seconds but with 5,5km to go, Carapaz dropped McNulty to pull away at the front.
He turned on the power, increasing his lead to 40 seconds with 1km to go, before going on to win the gold medal.
In the process, he became Ecuador’s first cycling gold medallist and only the second Ecuadorean to win a gold medal at the Olympics, following Jefferson Perez, who won gold in the men’s 20km walk in 1996.
