The Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov had been chasing a prestigious victory for some time to end his career as a great fighter in cycling at the age of 38, enriched by important successes such as the Vuelta and often interrupted by injuries (the most frightening one in the 2011 Tour) and by a disqualification for doping: after having tried in vain at the last Tour, he obtained it, prestigious as never before, on the London Olympic circuit, in front of Buckingham Palace, beating the Colombian Rigoberto Uran Uran in a two-man sprint. Third, a handful of seconds behind, the Norwegian Alexader Kristoff who regulated a large group of pursuers including our Nibali and Modolo. Gold medal then to Kazakhstan with Vinokourov (already second in Sydney 2000); silver to Colombia and bronze to Norway.
The podium in London speaks for itself of the great defeat of the English squadron which with Cavendish and Wiggins was the big favorite on the eve. And to applaud the new heroes of British cycling, the yellow jersey of the Tour and the king of the sprints, there were more than a million people packed along the 250km course. Such an audience had never been seen in Great Britain for a bike race. But the plans of the Union Jack are blown in the last forty kilometers of the run thanks to the repeated shots of Vincenzo Nibali on the only short ascent of Box Hill: average gradient of 4%, a couple of kilometers in all with a stretch of up to 6%. , two zig-zag hairpin bends to evoke the climbs of the Tour and the Giro, an overpass or little more which, however, faced nine times, as envisioned on the Olympic circuit, offered the opponents of the English the opportunity for attacks that avoided the final flight. And so it was and the unpredictable happened.
Eleven riders tried first (including our Pinotti and the Russian Denis Menchov) authors of a breakaway that had a lead of up to five minutes. Then it was the turn of Vincenzo Nibali imitated by Gilbert and by Leo Luis Sanchez: and what seemed like a simple sample stretch of the Shark turned into a series of attacks and ever more numerous splits of the group which in the end disoriented Wiggins and comrades who up to that point were the masters of the race, there at the head of the platoon to supervise the big names and lead the run-up to the fugitives. Only the Germans who had André Greipel, another formidable sprinter, in the ranks, gave some substitutions to Wiggins and his companions. The other greats, from Peter Sagan to Fabian Cancellara, from Ryder Hesjedal to Alejandro Valverde and Tom Boonen, have always remained indoors waiting to see the developments of the race. Cancellara and Valverde in the final tussle managed to hook up with the leading group, about thirty units, which had formed in the wake of Nibali's shots and after the absorption of the first escapees. But the Swiss champion, who was returning to racing after retiring from the Tour, took a curve badly and crashed into the barriers at 15 km. since arrival. He got up battered and hurt, with severe pain in his elbow. For him the race was compromised.
With the risk that he may not even be able to defend the title won in Beijing in the race against time. Immediately after the fall of Cancellara, Vinokourov and Uran stretched ahead of their fellow refugees. For Wiggins and Cavendish now almost a minute late the Olympic dream was setting. The demoralized world champion also lost the latecomers sprint finishing only 29th. So in front of Buckingham Palace instead of the English anthem the notes of the Kazakh one were broadcast. With the old Vinokourov moved who received the gold medal succeeding the unfortunate Samuel Sanchez, the Spanish winner at the Beijing Games, forced to forfeit for a bad fall in the last Tour de France. On Twitter Cavendish will later comment on the defeat: "We were the victim of our successes".
