Remco Evenepoel crowned Olympic road champion

Paris. Belgian cyclist Remco Evenepoel, who played football for his country’s youth teams until he was 17, made history on Saturday by becoming the first rider to win both the road races and time trials at the Olympic Games.

Evenepoel, 24, was crowned Olympic road champion after an unprecedented and gruelling 273-kilometre ride through the heart of Paris and its surroundings. It was the end of an unforgettable summer for the Belgian, who also took gold in the time trial a week ago and finished third in the last Tour de France.

After finishing 49th in Tokyo four years ago, Evenepoel made a devastating finish with 38 kilometres to go and built up such a lead over his rivals that not even a punctured tyre that forced him to change bikes less than four kilometres from the finish prevented him from winning.

The cyclist, who was interested in football as a child and made it to the Belgium Under-17 team, crossed the finish line in a time of six hours, 19 minutes and 34 seconds. He then positioned his bike and raised his arms on the Trocadero esplanade, with the imposing Eiffel Tower behind him.

In a Games designed to blend sport into each of the City of Light’s most symbolic monuments, road cycling took that claim to the extreme with the longest circuit for this event in the history of the Games.

Frenchmen Valentin Madouas and Christophe Laporte also took to the podium. These were France’s first medals in the Olympic road race in 68 years.

The neutral start of the race also took place at Trocadero at 11 a.m. local time, and almost ten minutes later the clock began to tick at the height of the Louvre Museum pyramid.

After six kilometres of racing, five cyclists from Mauritania, Thailand, Uganda, Rwanda and Morocco broke away from the rest of the pack on a zig-zagging route through the central streets of Paris in front of thousands of spectators behind the barriers.

The Palace of Versailles was the gateway to the colourful suburbs of Bougival, Beynes, Montigny-le-Bretonneux and Auffargis, nestled between castles and fields. With 100 kilometres to go, the toughest part of the race began, with climbs that shortened the gap between the leaders and the pursuers, including Evenepoel.

With the return to Paris, the time has come for a decision.

On the cobbled streets of Montmartre, Evenepoel executed the final sprint that would take him to the top of the podium.

Unlike a traditional race, riders are not allowed to use radios at the Olympic event, so the only way the peloton can tell how far they are from the leaders is through an updated board held aloft by the rider, or by returning to the team cars and discussing the situation with their coaches.

Evenepoel started playing football at the age of four with Anderlecht in his home country and then spent several years at PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands. He claimed that mental problems led him to quit football.

On Saturday the Belgian joined the leading group with an incredible display of power, then worked in tandem with local Madouas until the last of the climbs to Montmartre, and the world’s best time trialist simply went into aero mode and rode away to the finish.

After Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz’s gold four years ago, it was not a good day for the Latin American cycling powers.

Colombian debutant Santiago Buitrago, 24, was the best placed, finishing 19th, 2 minutes and 15 seconds behind the champion. His compatriot Daniel Martínez, who had been left out of the Tokyo Olympics due to COVID, had to settle for 25th place, 2 minutes and 20 seconds behind.

Meanwhile, Ecuadorian Jhonatan Narváez, who was awarded the Olympic quota by his country’s federation ahead of Carapaz, finished 45th.