Cycling Chief Hails Road Race Course; Britain Fails in Gold Bid

(ATR) Cycling federation president Pat McQuaid tells Around the Rings he’s delighted with the turnout and organization of the Olympic men’s road race and sorry that Britain was unable to kickstart the Games with a gold medal for favorite Mark Cavendish.

"There were easily a million people on the course during the day. It was a wonderful spectacle, wonderful audience, wonderful to see families and children out and people on bikes," he told ATR soon after the race.

"The race was very, very hard. I feel sorry for the British. But they had a lot to do, when that second group went with strong riders. If they made a mistake, it’s that they didn’t close that [gap] down immediately. The race went away from them from that moment on. That’s racing, that’s sport.

"It was very much a classic race on a classic course."

Huge hype surrounded this 250km race following Cavendish’s supporting role in the Tour de France to eventual winner Bradley Wiggins, who repaid the favor today.

GB fielded their best ever team in the road race but the riders were unable to claw back a gap between the peloton and the leaders with Cavendish eventually finishing 29th. Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov was crowned Olympic champion, with Colombia's Rigoberto Uran second and Norway's Alexander Kristoff picking up the bronze.

There was no shortage of support from the thousands of British cycling fans who draped Union Jacks across barriers along the route.

Anticipation was high down on The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace, but hopes of a gold for the home crowd evaporated as TV commentary and the large screens dotted around the grandstands at the finish line made clear that he wasn’t coming in first in the grueling nearly six-hour race. Still, the sun shone brightly on spectators lining the route through Surrey and London and on the 900-capacity grandstands at the road race finish.

McQuaid also commented on Vinokourov’s doping past – he was banned for two years for blood doping in 2007, returning to racing in 2009 – which drew two questions at his winner’s press conference.

The Kazakh told reporters his gold was a "dream come true" before adding that the doping case was "a closed chapter".

McQuaid told ATR that it was wrong for people to talk about the winner’s drug cheating days. The GB team also field a former doper in David Millar.

"You can’t start looking at it negatively like that. Give the guy his victory. He won the race and won it well," he said. "He was tested many times on the Tour de France this year."

He added: "He’s an Olympic champion. I hope that nothing tarnishes that."

LOCOG and the BBC had to deal with criticism of the Olympic Broadcasting Service feed, which failed to offer enough detailed information to commentators at the finish line. It meant that the crowds willing GB on didn’t get enough regular updates about how far Cavendish was from the leaders. The atmosphere ultimately dropped a few notches in the closing half hour of the race when The Mall should have been at its noisiest.

Security checks were in place for all spectators and media down on The Mall. Concessions stands sold food and beverages and Team GB merchandise.

The media workroom was hard to find and on the small side. More than 150 journalists, including some 40 from the British nationals, had descended on the site to see the Cavendish bid for gold.

A measure of the importance of the event to Britain – and the rise in popularity of cycling since Beijing 2008 – were the number of bigwigs from London 2012 and other Olympic stakeholders.

London 2012 chairman and deputy chair Sebastian Coe and Keith Mills were in attendance along with Olympics minister Hugh Robertson, Mayor Boris Johnson, Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, British Olympic Association CEO Andy Hunt and LOCOG chief executive Paul Deighton.

Commenting on Cavendish’s disappointment, Coe told reporters: "It’s tough. There aren’t any cheap medals out there. Every four years it’s tougher. It’s not the end of the world."

There were a few other big names enjoying the action, too. ATR spoke to Labour leader Ed Miliband, who heads the opposition party to David Cameron’s Conservative coalition, and Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, who said they enjoyed the opening ceremony and the atmosphere at the men’s road race.

Miliband said he was disappointed for Cavendish and the "fantastic British team".

"Nothing should take away from the fact that Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France. There will be other [gold medal] opportunities during the Games," he said.

Speaking about the first day of full competition at the Olympics and Britain’s medal hopes, he added: "It is a fantastic atmosphere. We will win some medals that we didn’t expect to win and won’t win some that we expected to win."

The women’s road race takes place in London tomorrow with Britain’s hopes resting on four riders, including Beijing 2008 gold medalist Nicole Cooke.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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