Even Spartacus, on the top step of the podium, after the great joy he started crying like a little boy, to the applause of his own rivals. Extraordinary Cancellara: the Rio time trial gives the world the image of an absolute champion and the emotion of him capable of inspiring people crossing flags and geographical borders.
A cry of a champion who enters rightfully among the cult images of this Olympics such as Pellegrini's disappointment and Phelps' explosive enthusiasm in swimming after the victory in the 100m dolphin. A Fabian Cancellara like this had not been seen even after his extraordinary feats at Roubaix or Flanders. An irrepressible joy, the portrait of someone who touches heaven with his hand when Froome arrived as the last runner who could overtake him and was certain he had won another gold medal in the Olympic time trial eight years after his triumph in Beijing.
It was the race that Spartacus dreamed of winning, the last prestigious acute before ending a career that places him among the all-time cycling greats, but the farewell season was slipping away amidst disappointments and crashes after a glittering start with the first placed on the white roads in Chianti. Even the recent time trials, those at the Giro and the Tour, hadn't given any comforting responses. Tom Dumoulin looked unbeatable. Then there was Chris Froome, who had also set his sights on the Olympic time trial after the bronze medal in London.
In Rio they also met other uncomfortable customers such as Tony Martin, multiple champion in the specialty, and Rohan Dennis, former hour record holder. The bookmakers hadn't forgotten him on the eve but they didn't consider Cancellara among the biggest favourites. Even the hilly course with a tough climb to be repeated twice was not ideal for the Swiss champion.
But in the race Cancellara immediately made it clear that it was his day, dosing his efforts on a treacherous track, moreover from the slippery descent due to the rain that had fallen: in the first split he was already first with 14" on the British Dennis but in the 20th km of the total 54,6 km of the track, where the second survey is placed, the Swiss shows a decline that makes him relegate to fourth place also preceded by Dumoulin and Froome.
When everyone thought he was doomed, Spartacus surprises everyone by taking the race back in hand with a great second part of the race: for the others there is no escape, they have to give in to the superiority of the Swiss who ends the course in 1h12' 15” conquering a gold that smacks of legend. Dumoulin, who fought like a lion despite the ailment in his wrist, is second at 47”.
Even Froome doesn't go beyond third place at 1'02” from the unleashed Swiss: another bronze for the master of the Tour after the one in London behind Bradley Wiggins and Tony Martin. A bronze that he probably wouldn't even have conquered if Rohan Dennis only fifth hadn't been forced to change his bike on the second lap of the circuit. An accident that ousted him from a probable podium, also surpassed by the Spaniard Castroviejo. The German Martin was disappointing, silver in London, who finished only 12th in Rio, more than 3 minutes behind the Bern Locomotive. Twenty-seventh at about 7 minutes came Damiano Caruso, the only Italian in the race, after the painful forfeit by Nibali.
