Ryan Cox, after an aggressive race up front, was the only survivor among South Africa’s team of three in a thrilling 224km Olympic Games road race through the city streets of Athens that was won by Paolo Bettini of Italy on Saturday.
The tough little rider who started his cycling career in Cape Town, finished in the second trailing bunch after first Robbie Hunter, then Tiaan Kannemeyer succumbed to the intense heat and furious racing that took the pack of 144 up the 150 metre climb to Licavitos 17 times.
Hunter, South Africa’s only rider to have ridden the Tour de France, succumbed to the gruelling pace and intense heat after six laps.
”He’s been battling with a head cold these past few days and he began to have chest pains, so it was best that he pulled out,” said team manager Tony Harding afterwards.
At 158km into the race and with five laps to go Cox, in a superb aggressive display, made it into a three-man break with Australia’s sprint-specialist Robbie McEwan and Italy’s Cristian Moreni.
They worked well together for a half-minute lead for one lap then Ciaran Power (Ireland), Unai Etxebarria (Venezuela) and Jens Voigt (Germany) made the jump across. With four laps to go, they had worked up a 34 second lead on a now hard-working chasing bunch that had spat Kannemeyer out the back.
But the effort was too much for the tough little climber and they were hunted down within the following lap and with three to go Cox was at the back of the chasing bunch with a big group of 10 off the front in a fierce attack.
At the end of an intense chase on Bettini and Portugal’s young Sergio Paulinho, Cox finished off the pace with a group of tail-enders. It was a courageous effort by the 24-year-old in the company of most of the world’s top professionals that included Sydney 2000 Olympic champion Jan Ullrich of Germany.
Bettini broke with two laps remaining and worked up a 40 second lap when they took the bell into the final lap, but with five kilometres to go the bunch had them in sight and were smelling blood. The leaders held their lead, then had time to jockey for the back wheel before Bettini came from behind the take the sprint. – Sapa