By Julien Pretot and Geert De Clercq
PARIS (Reuters) -Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel had a heart-in-mouth moment as he claimed gold in the Olympic men’s road race in impressive fashion on Saturday to become the first male rider to achieve the double after also winning the time trial.
Evenepoel suffered a puncture less than four kilometres from the finish, on the Carousel du Louvre, raising his arm for assistance before clapping and waving at his team to deliver a new bike in a scene of sheer panic.
With race radio communication banned at the Games, the 24-year-old, who was cruising to victory, had no idea about the advantage he had over his rivals.
The change was made swiftly, however, and he powered to the line after he had made the decisive move 15km from the finish, in the run-in to the second of three punishing ascents of the Butte Montmartre.
Evenepoel’s brutal attack left Valentin Madouas, who was hovering 1:15 behind when Evenepoel’s incident occurred, gasping for air but the Frenchman hung on to take silver after 273km, one minute and 11 seconds off the pace.
Christophe Laporte won a small group sprint five seconds behind to take the bronze as France grabbed their first medals in the Olympic road race since 1956.
Evenepoel raised his arm again in the final kilometre but this time it was a pre-celebration before stepping off his bike as he crossed the line for a photo with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
“What a place to win this. Honestly I feel sick. So proud to win this and to be the first ever to double it, history, no ?,” a beaming Evenepoel, who finished third overall in the Tour de France last month, told reporters.
“You are never sure enough. I felt that his legs were getting empty and I knew the kicker where I dropped him was a kicker that really suited me. It was just pushing, pushing, pushing to the line.
“I really feel sick from the effort especially with the stressy moment with 4km to go, I got a straight puncture. I had to change bike, bit of stress but I had time enough.”
Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, one of the pre-race favourites, made a move on the steepest part of the Rue Lepic but could not open a decisive gap and ended up a disappointing 12th.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ed Osmond)
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