This Olympic Road Race might actually be worth watching

A punchy finale around Paris's Butte de Montmartre will bring the excitement usually missing from the Olympic Road Race, says Felix Lowe

- Felix Lowe

What do Jan Ullrich, Greg Van Avermaet and Richard Carapaz have in common?

Yes, they’ve all worn the yellow jersey and won Grand Tour stages, but more importantly – at least for the purposes of this piece – they’re all Olympic Road Race champions. It’s a strange sort of accolade, because while in most sports an Olympic gold medal would be the peak of achievement, in cycling it’s met by fans with little more than a shrug.

All too often an Olympic Road Race course is a dull procession designed to show off tourist sites rather than promote exciting racing, and the standard of an Olympic peloton is usually so low that the outcome can (allegedly and wholly indemonstrably) be decided by a simple chat, handshake and promise of a bottle of vino on the way to The Mall.

Just look at the women’s road race in Tokyo 2021, when nobody – not least Annemiek van Vleuten – seemed to appreciate that there was still one plucky escapee up the road. Take nothing away from Austria’s Anna Kiesenhofer, a worthy champion who had the guts to attack early and the strength to hold on, but the whole event reeked of the amateurism for which the Games were once fabled.