Aaron Gate and Georgia Baker take Commonwealth Games road race titles
New Zealander Gate claimed his fourth gold in Birmingham after Baker won her third title for Australia in the women's race.
Cycling Road
New Zealand's Aaron Gate took his fourth gold of these Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games on Sunday (7 August).
After his wins in the velodrome in the team pursuit, individual pursuit and 40km points race, the 31-year-old finished fastest to claim the men's road race ahead of South Africa's Daryl Impey and Finn Crockett of Scotland.
Australia won gold and bronze in the women's race thanks to Georgia Baker and Sarah Roy with Scotland's Neah Evans taking silver in the bunch sprint.
That took Tasmanian Baker's tally to three golds in Birmingham after her successes in the team pursuit and 25km points race.
Golden Gate continues dream Games
The men's field was missing time trial gold medallist Rohan Dennis after the Australian went to hospital for tests suffering from discomfort.
An early breakaway of 15 riders, including Wales' 2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas established a significant lead over the peloton with pre-race favourite Mark Cavendish (Isle of Man) among the big names left behind.
With 46km remaining, Australia's Lucas Plapp attacked from the front but Thomas helped reel him in swiftly. Then came a shortlived counter-attack from Ben Turner with England well represented in the lead group.
Canada's Pier-André Coté launched another attack inside the last 40km with six riders including Isle of Man's Ben Swift joining him, but Thomas again led the chase to shut it down.
Then came an attack from Matthew Teggart from Northern Ireland with just over 35km to go with Sam Watson (England), Daryl Impey (South Africa) and Aaron Gate (New Zealand) joining him in what looked a decisive break.
The other 11 were unable to respond immediately, but Teggart appeared unwilling to commit fully and they were back together with 26km left.
A number of counter-attacks followed with Swift and Bermuda's Kaden Hopkins losing touch.
And then just over 10km from home, Watson broke again and this time made it stick with Guernsey's Sam Culverwell managing to grab his wheel.
Morne van Niekerk worked hard to bring the pair back to set things up for team-mate Impey, and with the gap almost bridged, Thomas surged into the lead with 1.5km to go.
He was overhauled inside the last 600m and Plapp gave what turned out to be the perfect lead-out for Gate who took victory ahead of two-time Olympian Impey with Scotland's Finn Crockett taking bronze.
Gold and bronze for Australia in women's race
The women's race came down to a bunch sprint after a five-woman breakaway, including England's Anna Henderson and Anna Shackley of Scotland, was hauled in just over 35km from the finish.
Australian and Canadian riders were prominent in the closing stages. And it was Georgia Baker who benefited from a great lead-out to take gold for Australia from Scotland's fast-finishing Neah Evans, a team pursuit silver medallist at Tokyo 2020 last year, with Sarah Roy making it two Aussies on the podium.