The Olympic women's road race all went according to plan for the UK's Nicole Cooke. The team tactics for Sunday's race in Beijing were cooked up a year ago.
Cooke won a three-woman sprint for the gold in a 78-mile road race that was marked by heavy rains.
US cyclists Kristin Armstrong finished in 25th at 43 seconds behind, Amber Neben in 33rd at 53 second back, and Christine Thorburn finished 52nd at 8-minutes-44 behind the winner.
France's Jeannie Longo, the 49-year-old competing in her 7th Olympics, finished in 24th place, 33 seconds behind the winners.
Cooke is a 25-year-old from Wales who was competing in her second Olympics. She revealed after the race that the Great Britain team executed a racing strategy on Sunday that they had decided upon months before. Reports CyclingNews:
“Before the race we had a plan – a plan that went back twelve months – in terms of what we wanted to do today. Sharon [Laws], Emma [Pooley] and I all knew we were good riders but our best chance of success was to ride as a team; it's an important part of the race. When Emma attacked she was going for her own glory, but it also allowed me to ride defensively, it allowed me to save myself and to put the other teams on the back foot and me in a good position.
“So I blocked for her and then she blocked for me in the end, I think as a team we rode a fantastic race.”
Although Cooke won the gold medal, Times Online suggested it was ridden as a team event, at least in Great Britain's case. Laws and Pooley sacrificed their chances by allowing Cooke to sit back in the peloton. As Julian Winn said:
“All three are world-class riders in their own right. But it was for the other two to create things for Nicole. The plan was to make the Germans chase. We took the stuffing out of them. Everything worked like clockwork.”
A series of attacks marked the second and final lap up to the Great Wall in the 78-mile women's race. A group of five survived in the final kilometers, but two dropped off the acceleration, leaving Cooke, Emma Johansson of Sweden and Tatiana Guderzo of Italy to sprint for the finish.
Video
NBCOlympics.com video-streamed the race live Sunday morning, and it may be available later for viewing (the men's road race from Saturday is posted online). Check the NBCOlympics video page and scroll down to “Video Search”.
Also, NBC affiliate stations are scheduled to carry highlights of the race during the broadcast on Sunday.
The NBC video streaming gave me a much greater appreciation of the difficulties of women's road race. Namely, nature breaks.
Instead of simply pulling down their shorts while coasting or stopping briefly at the side of the road like the men do, the video-stream showed bunches of women jumping off their bikes and squating in the bushes. Loren Mooney of Bicycling magazine explained the action in the text commentary.
I've never see that on Versus, because they don't show women's racing.
USA last won a gold medal in road race at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. The winner was Connie Carpenter.
Final results for women's road race
Nicole Cooke (Great Britain) — gold
Emma Johansson (Sweden) — silver
Tatiano Guderzo (Italy) — bronze
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