Spain's incredible sporting summer took another surprising step when Samuel Sanchez added the Olympic road race gold medal to the country's trophy cabinet, already overflowing after Carlos Sastre's Tour de France victory, Alberto Contador's win in the Giro d'Italia, Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon and the European title for their football players.
A solid rather than spectacular talent, Sanchez has played second fiddle to Alejandro Valverde in recent years, and the national champion was expected to be Spain's leader here. However, Valverde did not figure in the decisive attack on the final lap, and instead it was the 30-year-old from the Asturian town of Oviedo who crossed the finish line in the shadow of the Great Wall ahead of five men who came together only in the final metres.
Sanchez had the pedigree of a man just waiting for a truly major win: seventh overall in this year's Tour de France, a raft of stage wins in the Vuelta a Espana, and a significant one-day victory in the Championship of Zurich in 2006. His impressive win cannot, however, overcome the suspicions that have surrounded Spanish cycling in recent years. Sanchez has not been linked to any scandals, but like the rest of his country's road race team he had been tested eight times since his arrival here, although the IOC president Jacques Rogge said last Thursday that there were no particular suspicions about the Spanish.
The bulk of the race was merely a wearing down process, but a truly gripping final lap made up for the initial lack of fireworks. As the race climbed to the Badaling fortress for the final time, the Luxembourgeois Andy Schleck put in a searing, prolonged acceleration, and by the top the only men with him were Sanchez and the aging Italian one-day specialist Davide Rebellin.
The trio looked to be clean away, but they were joined before the finish by Michael Rogers of Australia and the Russian Michael Kolobnev – who had initially formed part of the Shleck-led breakaway – and Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland, who put in a truly electrifying descent to sweep up Rogers and Kolobnev before dragging them up to the leading trio within the final kilometre. The world time-trial champion was unable to follow through in the finish sprint, but he will now be the clear favourite in his speciality on Wednesday.
As road races go, this was visually sumptuous, beginning with the stately run through the capital, under the glaring portrait of Chairman Mao on the great mausoleum in the vast expanse of Tiananmen Square, past the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube and so eventually into the countryside, a reminder with its rural gardens of maize and runner-beans of the China that much of the Olympic family will never see during this Games.
Soon the first foothills beckoned greenly through the morning mist, and finally came the great snaking mass of the Wall itself, clinging in unlikely style to one ridge, then the next. First came the brief pull up to the finish line, in a cleft in the hills, then a gateway through the wall that led to the long drag to the fortress, followed in turn by a swoop back down to the valley – including a lengthy tunnel - before the whole heartbreaking process began again.
In the first significant move, initially at least, was one of the British quartet, the Manxman Jonny Bellis, bronze medallist in last year's Under-23 world title race and the youngest rider in the race. His presence in a group of 30 that escaped on the run-out from Beijing showed tactical nous, but he lacked the horsepower to hold on once the Tour de France winner Sastre began setting the pace up the hill to Badaling.
He soon became the first of many to hit the wall at the Wall, and was followed by his team-mates Steve Cummings and Roger Hammond. Ben Swift lasted the longest of Britain's quartet, but not surprisingly for a 20-year-old the distance got to him and he faded in the final two laps before quitting. However, he had never raced over this distance before, and the experience will prove invaluable in London in four years' time.
It was the Italians who did the initial work to bring the group of early escapees into the fold before the Spaniards took over, with first Sastre and then Contador keeping the pace high in the final laps. The two Tour winners wore themselves out well before the bell, but their efforts were rewarded by a canny final lap from Sanchez.
A solid rather than spectacular talent, Sanchez has played second fiddle to Alejandro Valverde in recent years, and the national champion was expected to be Spain's leader here. However, Valverde did not figure in the decisive attack on the final lap, and instead it was the 30-year-old from the Asturian town of Oviedo who crossed the finish line in the shadow of the Great Wall ahead of five men who came together only in the final metres.
Sanchez had the pedigree of a man just waiting for a truly major win: seventh overall in this year's Tour de France, a raft of stage wins in the Vuelta a Espana, and a significant one-day victory in the Championship of Zurich in 2006. His impressive win cannot, however, overcome the suspicions that have surrounded Spanish cycling in recent years. Sanchez has not been linked to any scandals, but like the rest of his country's road race team he had been tested eight times since his arrival here, although the IOC president Jacques Rogge said last Thursday that there were no particular suspicions about the Spanish.
The bulk of the race was merely a wearing down process, but a truly gripping final lap made up for the initial lack of fireworks. As the race climbed to the Badaling fortress for the final time, the Luxembourgeois Andy Schleck put in a searing, prolonged acceleration, and by the top the only men with him were Sanchez and the aging Italian one-day specialist Davide Rebellin.
The trio looked to be clean away, but they were joined before the finish by Michael Rogers of Australia and the Russian Michael Kolobnev – who had initially formed part of the Shleck-led breakaway – and Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland, who put in a truly electrifying descent to sweep up Rogers and Kolobnev before dragging them up to the leading trio within the final kilometre. The world time-trial champion was unable to follow through in the finish sprint, but he will now be the clear favourite in his speciality on Wednesday.
As road races go, this was visually sumptuous, beginning with the stately run through the capital, under the glaring portrait of Chairman Mao on the great mausoleum in the vast expanse of Tiananmen Square, past the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube and so eventually into the countryside, a reminder with its rural gardens of maize and runner-beans of the China that much of the Olympic family will never see during this Games.
Soon the first foothills beckoned greenly through the morning mist, and finally came the great snaking mass of the Wall itself, clinging in unlikely style to one ridge, then the next. First came the brief pull up to the finish line, in a cleft in the hills, then a gateway through the wall that led to the long drag to the fortress, followed in turn by a swoop back down to the valley – including a lengthy tunnel - before the whole heartbreaking process began again.
In the first significant move, initially at least, was one of the British quartet, the Manxman Jonny Bellis, bronze medallist in last year's Under-23 world title race and the youngest rider in the race. His presence in a group of 30 that escaped on the run-out from Beijing showed tactical nous, but he lacked the horsepower to hold on once the Tour de France winner Sastre began setting the pace up the hill to Badaling.
He soon became the first of many to hit the wall at the Wall, and was followed by his team-mates Steve Cummings and Roger Hammond. Ben Swift lasted the longest of Britain's quartet, but not surprisingly for a 20-year-old the distance got to him and he faded in the final two laps before quitting. However, he had never raced over this distance before, and the experience will prove invaluable in London in four years' time.
It was the Italians who did the initial work to bring the group of early escapees into the fold before the Spaniards took over, with first Sastre and then Contador keeping the pace high in the final laps. The two Tour winners wore themselves out well before the bell, but their efforts were rewarded by a canny final lap from Sanchez.
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