What we learned: Road cycling wrap-up from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

The road cycling competitions at Tokyo 2020 were full of excitement and drama, shock victories and epic comebacks - in short, everything you would want at an Olympic Games!

Below, we take a look back at the most memorable moments, a recap of the medal winners, and who to look out for at the Paris 2024 Olympics in just three years!

Top 5 road cycling moments at Tokyo 2020

Here are some of the highlights from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which took place in 2021.

1 - Anna Kiesenhofer’s ‘surprise’ road race victory

Where else to begin but with **Kiesenhofer’**s stunning victory in the women’s road race?

The Austrian is a time-trial specialist, but she was virtually unheard of entering the road race competition at Tokyo 2020. The 30-year-old is a full-time mathematics post-doctoral candidate at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland and is an amateur cyclist; that is to say, she’s not signed to a professional team (she doesn’t even have a coach!).

But that didn’t matter as the Austrian produced the performance of a lifetime across the gruelling 147km race, going it alone for the final 40km before coming home first in a time of 3:52:45.

So great was her advantage that the Netherlands' Annemiek van Vleuten - who finished almost two minutes after Kiesenhofer - broke into tears of joy, mistakenly thinking she had won gold before realising that she had, in fact, finished second.

"It feels incredible,” Kiesenhofer said. “I couldn't believe it. Even when I crossed the line, it was like, 'Is it done now? Do I have to continue riding?' Incredible."

With her victory, Kiesenhofer made history in a number of ways for Austria; she is the first Austrian athlete to win an Olympic road race medal, the first Austrian to win an Olympic medal in any cycling discipline in 125 years, and the first Austrian to win a gold medal at the (summer) Olympic Games since Athens 2004.

2 - Richard Carapaz lives up to his nickname in road race triumph

While Carapaz’s victory in the men’s road race wasn’t as big of a shock as Kiesenhofer’s gold-medal ride in the women’s event, his performance was no less spectacular.

Carapaz – the 2019 Giro d’Italia winner, 2020 Vuelta a España runner-up, and third-place finisher in the 2021 Tour de France – had reportedly prepared for the event by training on the Cotopaxi Volcano in the Andes.

That proved to be a wise decision by the Ecuadorian, considering the race route in Tokyo was described as one of the hardest in Olympic history with almost 5,000m of climbing.

With 25 kilometres to go, Carapaz - whose nickname is La Locomotora (The Locomotive) - raced to the front along with the USA's Brandon McNulty, with the two leaders putting more than 30 seconds between themselves and the first chase group. However, with six kilometres left Carapaz seized his chance, breaking away from a tiring McNulty on an uphill climb before storming away to become only the second Ecuadorian gold medallist in Olympic history.

After the race, Carapaz spoke with pride about winning the gold medal: “The truth is it is an incredible moment that words can’t describe," he said, before adding: “To my country, the truth is you have to believe, no? I have worked so hard to get here. I’m here, I’m enjoying — it’s something so big for me. And simply thank you for the support which truthfully really helped me get here.”

3 - Primož Roglič wins the men’s time trial

Slovenian Primož Roglič arrived in Tokyo still dealing with the lingering after-effects of a nasty crash which forced him to withdraw from the 2021 Tour de France - the competition he had finished second in the year prior.

"First of all let's say...when I took the decision to come here, I put some good training in and I was ready to go but immediately with the road race I found big problems again because I was almost out of the race after one hour because of cramping in the back for some days," said Roglic, who finished 28th in the men’s road race.

But thankfully for Roglic, when the day of the time trial competition rolled around he was no longer feeling any pain, which allowed him to set a blistering time of 55:04.19 to take gold by more than a minute over his closest competitor, Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands.

4 - Netherlands athletes overcome a string of bad luck

The Dutch cycling team must have felt like they had done something to offend the Tokyo 2020 gods after the first few days of competition (and training!) in Japan.

First, as we mentioned earlier, Dutch rider Van Vleuten didn’t realise she had a competitor ahead of her in the women’s road race due to the lack of radio communications.

Then, in the mountain bike event, Mathieu van der Poel crashed out of the competition after not realising a ramp on the course would be removed for the actual race.

And there was another incident after eventual BMX champion Niek Kimmann collided with an official who wandered onto the track during a practice run.

But Van Vleuten had claimed a silver medal in the road race, and she followed it up with a gold in the women’s time trial as her compatriot Anna van der Breggen took the bronze. There was success on the men’s side too, with Dumoulin securing a silver in the time trial.

5 - Cheering fans!

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fans were not permitted inside most competition venues for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

However, athletes in the road races were lucky enough to experience cheering fans as most of the route for the men’s and women’s races was outside of the Tokyo region, where more relaxed COVID-19 protocols allowed for spectators.

Japanese spectators made the most of the opportunity, cheering on the cyclists with traditional Taiko drums, whistles, and large signs providing a much-needed boost to the athletes undergoing the gruelling race.

One last look at Van Vleuten's time trial win

Van Vleuten would be forgiven for feeling a little embarrassed after her faux-pas in the women's road race, but she made amends in the best way possible: by winning gold in the women's time trial.

The two-time time trial world champion showed her quality on the bike in the event, posting a lightning-quick time of 30:13.49 - almost a full minute faster than Marlen Reusser (SUI) in second - to finish top of the podium.

It was quite the redemption story for the Dutch rider, who suffered a frightening crash while leading the road race at Rio 2016 that led to her being hospitalised with three lumbar spinal fractures and a severe concussion.

But there was no stopping the 38-year-old on the Fuji International Speedway as she deservingly won gold.

Hello Paris 2024

One of the exciting aspects of the road race and time trial competitions is the fact that you never know who is going to win! In the Olympic history of both events across both genders, there has only ever been three athletes to successfully defend their gold medal: Viatcheslav Ekimov, who won gold in 2004 and 2008 in the men's time trial, Leontien van Moorsel in the women's time trial in 2000 and 2004, and Kristin Armstrong, who won three successive gold medals from 2008 to 2016.

So, it's a safe bet we will see new athletes stand atop the podium in Paris in three years time; we only hope the competitions to win gold are as exciting as the ones we were treated to in Tokyo!

When and where to watch road cycling replays on Olympics.com

The answer is here: Olympics.com/tokyo2020-replays

When do the top cyclists compete next?

The UEC Road European Championships are scheduled to take place from 8 to 12 September, with the UCI Road World Championships in Belgium from 19 to 26 September.

Full medals list in road cycling at Tokyo 2020 in 2021

Women’s events

Road race

Gold: Anna Kiesenhofer (AUT)

Silver: Annemiek van Vleuten (NED)

Bronze: Elisa Longo Borghini (ITA)

Time trial

Gold: Annemiek van Vleuten (NED)

Silver: Marlen Reusser (SUI)

Bronze: Anna van der Breggen (NED)

Men’s events

Road race

Gold: Richard Carapaz (ECU)

Silver: Wout Van Aert (BEL)

Bronze: Tadej Pogačar (SLO)

Time trial

Gold: Primož Roglič (SLO)

Silver: Tom Dumoulin (NED)

Bronze: Rohan Dennis (AUS)