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<\/a>Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – Olimpiadi Tokyo 2020 – Men’s Road Race – Musashinonomori Park – Fuji Internetional Speedway 234 km – 24\/07\/2021 – Scenery – photo Luca Bettini\/BettiniPhoto\u00a92021<\/p><\/div>\n
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Over 234 kilometers, with a total of 4,800 meters of climbing, in extremely tough climatic conditions, the race followed the classic script: right at the start a stable breakaway group formed, posing no threat at all to the favorites. The first serious attack on a climb, 37 kilometers from the finish, was launched by the Slovenian Tadej Poga\u010dar, who came to the Olympics as the reigning winner of the French Grand Tour. Naturally, the peloton could not let a top favorite of such rank go, and so it was. On the other hand, when the American Brandon McNulty attacked 25 kilometers from the finish, the group of favorites, considerably thinned out by Tadej’s attack, let him go with the traditional looking-at-each-other \u2014 but not all of them. Knowing his own sprinting abilities at the finish, even from a small group, the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, winner of the 2019 Italian Grand Tour, decided to chase Brandon. Richard had studied the peculiarities of the 234-kilometer Olympic course well. He joined the American, and the two riders quickly found common ground. The American has an excellent individual pace, while the Ecuadorian, born in Carchi province, rode his bike to school at 3,000 meters above sea level and feels on a climb like a fish in water. The escapees divided their roles accordingly. Not even a week had passed since the Ecuadorian had stood on the podium of the French Grand Tour; there he had been in the rising phase of his form, he did not try to achieve the impossible, and in Tokyo, as riders say, “he had the legs”!<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – Olimpiadi Tokyo 2020 – Men’s Road Race – Musashinonomori Park – Fuji Internetional Speedway 234 km – 24\/07\/2021 – Richard Carapaz (ECU – Ineos Grenadiers) – photo Patrick Pichon\/BettiniPhoto\u00a92021<\/p><\/div>\n
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He had the legs, and on the finishing climb at the Fuji Speedway he noticeably upped the pace; the American was dropped, and as it turned out, this was Richard’s golden attack!<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – Olimpiadi Tokyo 2020 – Men’s Road Race – Musashinonomori Park – Fuji Internetional Speedway 234 km – 24\/07\/2021 – Richard Carapaz (ECU – Ineos Grenadiers) – photo Alex Broadway\/SWpix\/BettiniPhoto\u00a92021<\/p><\/div>\n
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The sprint of the main group of favorites was only for the podium, and two mega-stars of modern cycling stepped onto it!<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – Olimpiadi Tokyo 2020 – Men’s Road Race – Musashinonomori Park – Fuji Internetional Speedway 234 km – 24\/07\/2021 – Wout Van Aert (BEL – Jumbo – Visma) – Tadej Pogacar (SLO – UAE Team Emirates) – photo Peter De Voecht\/PN\/BettiniPhoto\u00a92021<\/p><\/div>\n
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The second step went to the Belgian Wout van Aert, who on July 18 had won the sprint of the prestigious French Tour on the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es. It’s worth noting that at the recent Tour, besides the sprint, Wout won two more completely different stages: the individual time trial and the queen mountain stage with a double ascent of the legendary Mont Ventoux. The simultaneous king of the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es and Mont Ventoux \u2014 something extremely rare \u2014 had to settle for silver in Tokyo. That’s his lot: no one ever wants to take him to the finish, which is also why he had to be content with silver at the 2020 World Championships.<\/p>\n
The third step went to the Slovenian Tadej Poga\u010dar, who on that same July 18 had won the prestigious general classification of the French Tour for the second consecutive time in his career. The main classification aside, Tadej did not hold back on individual stages either \u2014 he too won three at the recent Tour. I won’t dwell here on these two riders’ other achievements.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – Olimpiadi Tokyo 2020 – Men’s Road Race – Musashinonomori Park – Fuji Internetional Speedway 234 km – 24\/07\/2021 – Richard Carapaz (Ecuador) – Wout Van Aert (Belgium) – Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) – photo Luca Bettini\/BettiniPhoto\u00a92021<\/p><\/div>\n
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It’s worth noting that this was only the second Olympic gold in Ecuador’s history. Before that, back in Atlanta in 1996, the legendary race walker Jefferson Leonardo P\u00e9rez Quezada, a participant in five Olympic Games, brought his homeland its first gold in the 20-kilometer walk. Later, however, also in Tokyo, Neisi Patricia Dajomes Barrera won the women’s weightlifting up to 76 kilograms and gave Ecuador its third Olympic gold!<\/p>\n
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Featured image: ROBERTO and LUCA BETTINI\/www.bettiniphoto.net<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Inside post thumbnail image:\u00a0ROBERTO and LUCA BETTINI\/www.bettiniphoto.net<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n