Les Woodland's book The Olympics' 50 Craziest Stories: A Five Ring Circus is available in print, Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
The Olympics:
The men's road race was the only road cycling event in the first modern Olympic Games, the 1896 Athens Olympics, an 87 kilometer race starting and finishing in Athens.
Between the 1912 Stockholm games and the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics it was held as an individual time trial, sometimes of staggering length. In 1928 the Olympic road race was 168 kilometers.
Professional athletes were allowed to compete in the Olympics starting with the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Guy Lapèbie believed his teammate Robert Charpentier beat him by grabbing his jersey in the 1936 Berlin games. How he found this out is in Les Woodland's The Olympics' 50 Craziest Stories. The link to buy this fun book from Amazon.com is just to the right.
Year/City |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
1896 Athens | Aristidis Konstantinidis Greece |
August Goedrich Germany |
Edward Battel Great Britain |
1912 Stockholm | Rudolf Lewis South Africa |
Fredrick Grubb Great Britain |
Carl Schutte USA |
1920 Antwerp | Harry Stenqvist Sweden |
Henry Kaltenbrun South Africa |
Fernand Canteloube France |
1924 Paris | Armand Blanchonnet France |
Henri Hoenvenaers Belgium |
Rene Hamel France |
1928 Amsterdam | Henry-Peter Hansen Denmark |
Frank Southall Great Britain |
Gösta Carlsson Sweden |
1932 Los Angeles | Attilio Pavesi Italy |
Guglielmo Segato Italy |
Bernhard Britz Sweden |
1936 Berlin | Robert Charpentier France |
Guy Lapèbie France |
Ernst Nievergelt Switzerland |
1948 London | Jose Beyaert France |
Petrus Voorting Holland |
Lode A. Wouters Belgium |
1952 Helsinki | Andre A. Noyelle Belgium |
Robert Grondelaers Belgium |
Edy Ziegler Germany |
1956 Melbourne | Ercole Baldini Italy |
Arnaud Geyre France |
Alan W. Jackson Great Britain |
1960 Rome | Victor Kapitonov USSR |
Livio Trape Italy |
W. Van Den Bergen Belgium |
1964 Tokyo | Mario Zanin Italy |
Kjell Rodian Denmark |
Walter Godefroot Belgium |
1968 Mexico City | Piefranco Vianelli Italy |
Lief Mortensen Denmark |
Gosta Pettersson Sweden |
1972 Munich | Hennie Kuiper Holland |
Kevin Sefton Australia |
Bruce Biddle New Zealand |
1976 Montreal | Bernt Johannson Sweden |
Giuseppe Martinelli Italy |
Mieczyslaw Nowicki Poland |
1980 Moscow | Sergei Soukouroutchenkov USSR |
Czeslaw Lang Poland |
Yuri Barinov USSR |
1984 Los Angeles | Alexei Grewal USA |
Steve Bauer Canada |
Dag-Otto Lauritzen Norway |
1988 Seoul | Olaf Ludwig East Germany |
Bernd Groene West Germany |
Christian Henn West Germany |
1992 Barcelona | Fabio Casartelli Italy |
Erik Dekker Holland |
D. Ozols Lithuania |
1996 Atlanta | Pascal Richard Switzerland |
Rolf Sorensen Denmark |
Max Sciandri Great Britain |
2000 Sydney | Jan Ullrich Germany |
Alexandre Vinokourov Kazakstan |
Andréas Klöden Germany |
2004 Athens | Paolo Bettini Italy 5hr 41min 44sec |
Sergio Paulinho Portugal @ 1sec |
Axel Merckx Belgium @ 8sec |
2008 Beijing 245.19 km |
Samuel Sanchez Spain 6hr 23min 49sec |
Davide Rebellin Italy @ s.t. |
Fabian Cancellara Switzerland @ s.t. |
2012 London 250 km |
Alexandre Vinokourov Kazakhstan 5htr 45min 57sec |
Rigoberto Uran Colombia @ s.t. |
Alexander Kristoff Norway @ 8sec |
2016 Rio de Janeiro 237.5 km |
Greg van Avermaet Belgium 6hr 10min 5sec |
Jakob Fuglsang Denmark @ s.t. |
Rafal Majka Poland @ 5sec |
2020 Tokyo 234 km |
Richard Carapaz Ecuador 6hr 5min 26sec |
Wout van Aert Belgium @ 1min 7sec |
Tadej Pogacar Slovenia s.t. |
2024 Paris 272.1 km |
Remco Evenepoel Belgium 6hr 19min 34sec |
Valentin Madouas France @ 1min 11sec |
Christophe Laporte France @ 1min 16sec |
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