Samuel Sanchez wins Olympic gold

Team GB - Schedule - BBCTV - Track Medals

Samuel Sanchez of Spain won the Olympic men's road race out sprinting Davide Rebellin (Italy) and Fabian Cancellera (Swiss).

Samuel Sanchez (L) out sprints Davide Rebellin - Pic fotoreporter sirotti

Latin American riders showed at the front first of all when Chile's Patricio Almonacid and Bolivian Horacio Gallardo had their moment in the spotlight. They were gobbled up by a 26 man breakaway group, which notably was missing reigning champion Paulo Bettnin (Italy) and the Spanish trio of Carlos Sastre, Alejandro Valverde and Alberto Contador.

The Spanish, Russians and Italians drove the pace up and despite a few attacks from the lead group the chase succeeded and the race back together. The pace of the Spanish in particular, saw the race whittled down, many riders pulling out suffering from the extremely humid conditions and pollution in Bejing.

A strong move by five riders saw the Spanish once more move to the front and pull back Ruslan Pidgornyy (Ukraine), Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Beloruss), Johan Vansummeren (Belgium), Rigoberto Uran (Columbia) and Marcus Ljungqvist (Sweden).

The race now moved into the final stages and the seventh and final 12 kilometre long climb saw Cadel Evans (Australia) put in a dig that split the remaining field. Andy Schleck (Luxembourg) jumped away from Evans wheel and gained a gap, and quickly Davide Rebellin (Italy) was up with him. Samuel Sanchez (Spain) was next to move and five riders went clear.

Alexander Kolobnev (Russia), Rebellin, Sanchez, Michael Rogers Australia and Andy Schleck had created a race winning move, but it was far from secure, and Rogers and Kolobnev were dropped.

Schleck, Rebellin and Sanchez had eight seconds in hand with two kilometres to go, whilst Rogers and Kolobnev now had the main field breathing down their necks.

At the one kilometre to go flag, Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) bridged the gap and when he went by Rogers and Kolobnev, both went with him and they caught the leaders.

The upward finishing straight saw Kolobnev lead out the sprint and he was overhauled on the line by first Sanchez, winning gold and then Rebellin for silver and Cancellera claiming the bronze.

Kolobnev out paced Schleck and Rogers whilst Santiago Botero (Colombia) led in the main group.

The Spanish team, including Tour winner Carlos Sastre and Giro champion Alberto Contador had clearly been working for Alejandro Valverde, and few had penciled in Sanchez as the winner. At race end Valverde hugged the new Olympic Champion heartily.

Davide Rebellin - Samuel Sanchez - Fabian Cancellera - Pic fotoreporter sirotti

1 8 Samuel Sanchez Spain 06:23:49 38.362
2 5 Davide Rebellin Italy
3 51 Fabian Cancellara Switzerland
4 44 Alexander Kolobnev Russian Fed.
5 34 Andy Schleck Luxembourg
6 30 Michael Rogers Australia
7 52 Santiago Botero Colombia 06:24:01 @ 0:12
8 16 Mario Aerts Belgium
9 97 Michael Barry Canada 06:24:05 @ 0:16
10 37 Robert Gesink Netherlands 06:24:07 @ 0:18
11 47 Levi Leipheimer United States 06:24:09 @ 0:20
12 94 Chris Soerensen Anker Denmark 06:24:11 @ 0:22
13 10 Alejandro Valverde Spain
14 24 Jerome Pineau France
15 26 Cadel Evans Australia
16 68 Przemyslaw Niemiec Poland
17 49 Christian Vandevelde United States 06:24:19 @ 0:30
18 1 Paolo Bettini Italy 06:24:24 @ 0:35
19 43 Vladimir Karpets Russian Fed. 06:24:59 @ 1:10
20 127 Murilo Fischer Brazil 06:26:17 @ 2:28
21 15 Fabian Wegmann Germany
22 142 Erik Hoffmann Namibia
23 100 Christian Pfannberger Austria
24 55 Gustav Larsson Sweden
25 95 Nicki Soerensen Denmark
26 104 Radoslav Rogina Croatia
27 69 John Augustyn South Africa
28 80 Nuno Ribeiro Portugal
29 124 Ignatas Konovalovas Lithuania
30 83 Jackson Rodriguez Venezuela
31 28 Matthew Lloyd Australia
32 58 Kurt Arvesen Norway
33 134 Kanstantsin Siutsou Belarus
34 23 Remi Pauriol France
35 65 Tadej Valjavec Slovenia
36 78 Yaroslav Popovych Ukraine
37 27 Simon Gerrans Australia
38 57 Thomas Lovkvist Sweden 06:26:25 @ 2:36
39 101 Thomas Rohregger Austria
40 46 George Hincapie United States
41 53 Jose Serpa Colombia 06:26:27 @ 2:38
42 20 Johan Vansummeren Belgium
43 35 Frank Schleck Luxembourg
44 131 Andrey Mizurov Kazakhstan
45 32 Roman Kreuziger Czech Republic 06:26:35 @ 2:46
46 33 Kim Kirchen Luxembourg 06:26:40 @ 2:51
47 107 Moises Aldape Mexico 06:28:08 @ 4:19
48 113 Rein Taaramae Estonia 06:30:49 @ 7:00
49 9 Carlos Sastre Spain 06:31:06 @ 7:17
50 4 Franco Pellizotti Italy
51 109 Sergey Lagutin Uzbekistan
52 72 Hossein Askari Iran 06:34:22 @ 10:33
53 77 Ruslan Pidgornyy Ukraine
54 92 Julian Dean New Zealand 06:34:26 @ 10:37
55 67 Jacek Morajko Poland
56 98 Ryder Hesjedal Canada
57 102 Matija Kvasina Croatia
58 56 Marcus Ljungqvist Sweden
59 99 Svein Tuft Canada
60 45 Denis Menshov Russian Fed.
61 63 Jure Golcer Slovenia
62 116 Jan Valach Slovakia
63 2 Marzio Bruseghin Italy
64 106 Nicholas Roche Ireland
65 39 Laurens Ten Dam Netherlands
66 126 Peter Kusztor Hungary 06:35:44 @ 11:55
67 120 Ivan Stevic Serbia
68 118 Gatis Smukulis Latvia 06:36:48 @ 12:59
69 112 Tanel Kangert Estonia
70 141 Gonzalo Garrido Chile
71 59 Edvald Hagen Norway
72 79 Andre Cardoso Portugal 06:39:42 @ 15:53
73 133 Aliaksandr Kuchynski Belarus
74 123 Dainius Kairelis Lithuania
75 31 Petr Bencik Czech Republic
76 132 Alexandr Pliuschin Rep. of Moldova
77 76 Denys Kostyuk Ukraine
78 42 Sergey Ivanov Russian Fed.
79 73 Ghader Mizbani Iran
80 70 David George South Africa
81 105 Philip Deignan Ireland
82 91 Glen Chadwick New Zealand
83 135 Aliaksandr Usau Belarus 06:49:59 @ 26:10
84 66 Tomasz Marczynski Poland
85 119 Nebojsa Jovanovic Serbia
86 82 Takashi Miyazawa Japan 06:55:24 @ 31:35
87 108 Rafaa Chtioui Tunisia 07:03:04 @ 39:15
88 139 Sungbaek Park Korea
89 138 Kin Wu San Hong Kong,China 07:05:57 @ 42:08
90 128 Luciano Pagliarini Mendonca Brazil 07:08:27 @ 44:38

Samuel Sanchez (L) out sprints Davide Rebellin and Fabian Cancellera is out of shot to the right - Pic fotoreporter sirotti

DNFs
6 Alberto Contador Spain DNF
64 Simon Spilak Slovenia DNF
14 Jens Voigt Germany DNF
22 Pierrick Fedrigo France DNF
21 Cyril Dessel France DNF
25 Pierre Rolland France DNF
54 Rigoberto Uran Colombia DNF
90 Ben Swift Great Britain DNF
36 Stef Clement Netherlands DNF
12 Bert Grabsch Germany DNF
3 Vincenzo Nibali Italy DNF
60 Lars Nordhaus Petter Norway DNF
103 Vladimir Miholjevic Croatia DNF
17 Christophe Brandt Belgium DNF
13 Stefan Schumacher Germany DNF
96 Brian Vandborg Bach Denmark DNF
19 den Van BROECK Jurgen Belgium DNF
93 Timothy Gudsell New Zealand DNF
140 Patricio Almonacid Chile DNF
110 Evgeniy Gerganov Bulgaria DNF
62 Borut Bozic Slovenia DNF
29 Stuart O'grady Australia DNF
130 Maxim Iglinskiy Kazakhstan DNF
61 Gabriel Rasch Norway DNF
81 Fumiyuki Beppu Japan DNF
122 Henry Raabe Costa Rica DNF LAP
74 Mehdi Sohrabi Iran DNF LAP
143 Mario Contreras El Salvador DNF
75 Andriy Grivko Ukraine DNF
41 Vladimir Efimkin Russian Fed. DNF
48 Jason Mccartney United States DNF
89 Roger Hammond Great Britain DNF
38 Karsten Kroon Netherlands DNF
7 Oscar Freire Spain DNF
88 Stephen Cummings Great Britain DNF
18 Maxime Monfort Belgium DNF
115 Matej Jurco Slovakia DNF
114 Roman Bronis Slovakia DNF
121 Hichem Chabane Algeria DNF LAP
85 Juan Haedo Jose Argentina DNF
129 Liang Zhang China DNF LAP
137 Ahmed Belgasem Libyan AJ DNF
11 Gerald Ciolek Michael Germany DNF
117 Raivis Belohvosciks Latvia DNF
87 Jonathan Bellis Great Britain DNF
136 Horacio Gallardo Bolivia DNF
125 Laszlo Bodrogi Hungary DNF
111 Daniel Petrov Bulgaria DNF LAP
86 Matias Medici Argentina DNF
40 Niki Terpstra Netherlands DNF
84 Alejandro Borrajo Argentina DNF LAP
71 Robert Hunter South Africa DNF LAP
50 David Zabriskie United States DNF