Paris 2024 track cycling: All results, as Portugal pedals to sensational Olympic gold medal in men’s Madison
Portugal’s duo of Iuri Leitao and Rui Oliveira emerged victorious in the men’s Madison, taming the chaos of track cycling's most complex event to claim a sensational gold medal on Saturday, 10 August at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Their total of 55 points saw them take the top spot at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, creating history as the first riders from Portugal to win a gold medal in track cycling.
"First medal in the track … We're not even close to being one of the favourites for this race, but we rolled our hearts out and with all my brothers and family here, we pushed to the limits,” said an emotional Oliveira.
“I've never won a single race in my life. To be Olympic champion as my first win is, well, I still don't know if this is all real, really. That's insane.”
It was an insane path to victory for Oliveira and Leitao as well, with the Portuguese riders navigating a constantly splintering peloton, a slew of crashes and a maze of active and inactive riders to claim gold.
They were dormant for much of the first half of the race, with Austria’s pair of Raphael Kokas and Maximilian Schmidbauer making the first major move by lapping the field.
Unfortunately, Austria’s young duo was overzealous in their efforts, ultimately being asked to leave the race by the commissaires after being lapped by the peloton too many times.
The Italian duo of Simone Consonni and Elia Viviani plus the Danish pair of Niklas Larsen and Michael Moerkoev would emerge as the biggest challengers to the Portugual's Oliveira and Leitao, with both pairings taking a lap on the peloton.
With 50 laps remaining, the race splintered severely. Multiple groups of riders pursued different goals around the track, but all three teams managed to survive the chaos without losing a lap on the peloton, leaving them in a prime position to win a medal.
Disaster would strike for Italy’s pair of Consonni and Viviani, as they swerved and tumbled off the track during a failed hand sling with fewer than 30 laps remaining. They would remount their bikes and rejoin the peloton, but not before Oliveira and Leitao launched an attack to gain a lap on the peloton.
It was all to play for in the final sprint, with Italy, Portugal and Denmark separated by only four points.
Denmark drove the pace at the front of the peloton, trying to drop the Italian and Portuguese riders. It seemed to be working until Leitao powered past them on the road to victory, overhauling the German pair of Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt to win the final sprint and claim victory for Portugal.
“The last 25 laps were supposed to be full gas, because we were predicting that everybody was really, really fatigued, so we knew if we could just keep it up, they will open on our wheel, and we just had to keep going,” said Leitao. “And we were sure that we could break them. And in the end, we were right.”
Italy’s duo of Consonni and Viviani was unable to match the frenetic pace of Portugal in the final laps of the race. Exhausted from their early efforts and bruised from their unfortunate crash, they crossed the finish line with 47 points to claim the silver medal.
They were followed by the Danish pairing of Larsen and Moerkoev, who raced valiantly in defence of their team’s gold medal from the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, but fell short in the end and left with the bronze medal after posting 41 points.
"Tokyo gold was the highlight of my career, but to be here at the age of 39, finishing my career this year winning a medal with a relatively new partner, Niklas, also makes me very proud,” said a reflective Moerkoev. “Until the race was finished, we were still fighting."
All 15 pairs entered in the Madison displayed a commendable fighting spirit, creating a thrilling battle and memorable race at Paris 2024.
Track cycling: Men’s Madison podium
Gold: Portugal
Silver: Italy
Bronze: Denmark
See all the results on Olympics.com.