The longest road race in Olympics history included 13 short categorized climbs, including the Côte de la Butte Montmartre (1.1km @ 5.9%), making for some 2,800m of climbing. The Montmartre climb came on a 14.1km city circuit, which the riders completed three times before racing to the finish line.
The 24-year-old Belgian was prominent throughout the last 90km, initiating a series of attacks that broke up the peloton. Then, with 38 km to go, he burst out of what remained of the peloton and joined a seven-rider breakaway that was pursuing the indefatigable Ben Healy.
With Evenepoel doing much of the work, they soon caught the Irish rider. But the Belgian wanted no part of the group. He began a series of new attacks that gradually whittled it down until there was only one rider with him, the surprising Frenchman Valentin Madouas.
He dropped Madouas with 15km to go, gradually pulled away and seemed to be heading for a dominant win, when disaster struck. With 3.5km to go, he suffered a puncture right in front of the Louvre. He jumped off his bike, threw it to the side of the course and then waved desperately to his team car to bring him a replacement.
But he needn’t have worried. The car arrived, gave him a new bike and he raced on to a picture-perfect victory, 1:11 ahead of Madouas. Another French rider, Christophe Laporte, was the quickest of the pursuers and won the bronze medal, 1:16 behind the winner. These were the first French medals in an Olympics road race since 1956 in Melbourne – though it came as a surprise to Laporte. “Only when I crossed the finish line did Madouas say that I was third and he was second,” he said. “I did not know that at all.”
Evenepoel was of course delighted. “What a place to win this,” he told Eurosport, pointing at the Eiffel Tower. “Honestly, I feel sick from the effort. It was a pretty hard day out there. I’m so proud to win this and be the first ever to win the double. It’s history, no?”
Yes, Remco, it’s history. Only one cyclist had ever done the golden double before, Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel of the Netherlands, who won the women’s road race and ITT in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sidney. Only two male riders had ever come close to the golden double: Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara, who won the time trial in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but finished second in the road race, and Jan Ullrich of Germany, who won the road race in Sidney in 2000, but finished second in the ITT.
Evenepoel celebrated his historic triumph on the finish line, posing with his bike and raising both arms in triumph. “I knew that the Eiffel Tower was in the background, so I wanted to do it,” he explained. “I think it’s going to be a great picture.”
Evenepoel was then asked if he had been worried when Madouas was on his wheel. “You’re never sure enough,” he said. “I felt his legs were getting empty and knew that the kicker was about going all out. From there it was about pushing, pushing, pushing all the way to the line. I really feel sick from the effort, especially that stressful moment when I punctured. I had a straight puncture and had to change bikes, but I don’t think the car was quite ready for that moment. It was stressful but I had enough time, so what a day.”
His main rival, defending world road race champion Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands, made several probing breaks, but he was always shadowed by Evenepoel’s teammate, Wout van Aert, and he eventually surrendered. He said Evenepoel’s breakaway at 38km was the key moment of the race.
“I actually thought the race was over at that point,” van der Poel told NOS. “We rode away with four or five very strong riders and had a nice gap. But we were still caught. When Remco went and nobody reacted, I actually already knew that it was going to be very difficult.”
With the aid of teammate Dylan van Baarle, he kept the gap to Evenepoel manageable, but van der Poel could not escape his shadow, van Aert. “I had already said beforehand that [Evenepoel] was one of the dangerous riders to let ride,” he said. “Dylan did well by keeping the gap as small as possible. I went everything or nothing [on] Montmartre one more time. I had Wout [van Aert] with me and he didn’t ride of course, because Remco was in front. That’s racing.”
Van der Poel eventually finished 12th, 1:49 adrift. Van Aert, who came into the race near his best form, would not let the Dutch rider out of his sights and was instrumental in keeping him from making a dangerous move. However, not far from the finish, he took a turn too fast and crashed into the barriers. Van Aert was unhurt and finished 37th.
But the race was all about his fellow Belgian, who has had a marvelous summer in France, finishing third in the Tour de France on his first appearance in the race and now taking double gold at the Paris Olympics. This will be a hard achievement to top, but Evenepoel will continue to improve and has many years left to make more history.
