Nebraska Cycling News

Vande Velde 17th, Hincapie 40th as Pre-Race Favorite Spain Delivers Gold Medal
 

Beijing, China - The 2008 U.S. Olympic Team opened competition on Saturday with the men's road race in which Levi Leipheimer (Santa Rosa, Calif.) placed 11th to record the team's best finish.  After enduring temperatures in the mid 90's with 85% humidity throughout the six-and-a-half hour race, Leipheimer finished 20 seconds off the pace of a six-man lead group.

Regarded as the nation to beat entering the race, Spain delivered a victory by virtue of Samuel Sanchez who outsprinted Davide Rebellin of Italy and Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara after 245 kilometers of racing. Sanchez' win provided Spain with its first-ever Olympic gold medal in the men's road race.

The United States' Christian Vande Velde (Boulder, Colo.) finished 30 seconds back to place 17th and George Hincapie (Greenville, S.C.) placed 40th, 2 minutes, 36 seconds in arrears.

David Zabriskie (Salt Lake City, Utah) and Jason McCartney (Coralville, Iowa) filled support roles for the team throughout the early part of the race and did not finish.

Described simply as a race of attrition by most competitors, only 90 of the 143 starters completed the race.  After starting in downtown Beijing and traveling 78 kilometers north to the Juyongguan section of the Great Wall, the peloton then continued to Badaling and back seven times on a hilly, 24-kilometer circuit.  The three remaining Americans were still in contention for a spot on the medal stand as they began the final circuit, but as the race entered its final kilometers, they couldn't hold the pace.  Six riders - Sanchez, Rebellin, Cancellara, Alexander Kolobnev (RUS), Andy Schleck (LUX) and Michael Rogers (AUS) - eventually emerged as the leaders and came to the line together for the final sprint, stopping the clock at 6 hours, 23 minutes and 49 seconds.

Leipheimer was the last American to lose contact with the leaders and saw his medal chances slip away late on the final lap.

"I came around the last corner and I could see the gold medal race 300 meters up ahead of me," he recalled. "It was so close yet so far."

Tactically, a mid-race breakaway that contained medal contenders Kim Kirchen (LUX), Jens Voigt (GER), and recent Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre (ESP) among others, posed a threat to which the U.S. squad needed to respond.

"We weren't expecting the breakaway in the beginning, so we had to burn a couple of guys for that," Hincapie explained, "but the team ran well even though we didn't win a medal."

Vande Velde, one of the U.S. squad's medal hopefuls after turning in a career-best performance in the Tour de France last month, was impressed with the team's showing despite falling short of a medal.

"I felt good all day and I was really aggressive, but it was a bit of a pot-luck at the end," Vande Velde said.  "It was all about following the right wheels and staying out of the wind.  Overall, I'm really happy with how we rode, it was just an awesome race."   

For the men's road team, Hincapie, McCartney and Vande Velde will return to the pro peloton and their respective trade teams, while Leipheimer and Zabriskie will remain in Beijing for the individual time trial on Wednesday.

Next up for the U.S. Olympic Cycling Team is the women's road race. Scheduled for Sunday at 2:00 p.m. local time, the women will cover the same 78 kilometer stretch of road out to Juyongguan before completing two laps of the same 24-kilometer circuit.  Kristin Armstrong (Boise, Idaho), Amber Neben (Irvine, Calif.) and Christine Thorburn (Sunnyvale, Calif.) give the three-woman U.S. squad medal potential in the 126-kilometer race.

2008 Olympic Games

Beijing, China

August 8-24

Men's Road Race Results:

1. Samuel Sanchez (ESP) 6:23:49

2. Davide Rebellin (ITA) 6:23:49

3. Fabian Cancellara (SUI) 6:23:49

11. Levi Leipheimer (Santa Rosa, Calif.) +0:20

17. Christian Vande Velde (Boulder, Colo.) +0:30

40. George Hincapie (Greenville, S.C.) +2:36

DNF. Jason McCartney (Coralville, Iowa)

DNF. David Zabriskie (Salt Lake City, Utah)