London 2012 Olympics: Men's Road Race

Most of the time the British are a quiet, reserved people who fulfill that self-imposed stereotype. But they are also a proud nation and they’ve proved, in addition to their many other understated accomplishments, that they are world-class athletes. The 2012 London Olympics are in full swing today, one week after the opening ceremony during which GB first gave the world a great demonstration of British history and pride. Now they’re keeping up with the Americans and the Chinese who are leading in first and second, respectively, in terms of number of Olympic medals won so far. Home team spirit is clearly carrying many of the GB athletes to incredible wins and medals. These people are so proud of their own Olympic competitors; I’ve now attended 2 events and I’ve seen it for myself. The home citizens pack the stands and cheer for their athletes as if the noise alone can urge them on and push them to be faster and stronger. And in all the hubbub I’m finding myself cheering for them too, even over my own nation’s athletes. After all, the USA has proven its point; they’re always going to be at the top in most events. Sports and sporting figures are like gods in our country so it’s not surprising when they get the best treatment and training and win golds as a result. Plus, just by our sheer size we have more athletes to enter into competition. But Britain is a small country with understated accomplishments, as I said, and it’s only since I’ve lived here and been exposed to everything that puts the Great in Britain that I began to appreciate that they’re much more than the small island nation with quiet people who live in stone houses and talk in posh accents.

Road Race Route

A friend of mine said Britain is best at “sitting down” sports and I thought that was so simple and succinct, let alone accurate. The GB teams have been favorites to win at the cycling and rowing events, in particular and so far they’ve lived up to expectations.  The men’s Cycling Road Race was one of the very first events on the first full day of the 2012 Olympics and it passed right through Putney near where I lived twice. I saw them on the home stretch as they headed back toward The Mall in front of the Palace with less than 10 miles to go. By that point only one British athlete remained in the competition after crashes and injuries took the others out. I caught the leading pack as I waited in front of Costa:

Cyclist Mark Cavendish had been earmarked to give Great Britain the perfect start to the London Olympics by winning gold in the men's road race on day one. But the world's greatest sprinter, the pre-race favourite, was too far adrift to deliver his trademark burst, finishing down in 29th place, well adrift of winner Alexandre Vinokourov from Kazakhstan. But while Vinokourov won Olympic gold in the men's cycling road race, leaving GB's Mark Cavendish's medal hopes in tatters, another cycling event later in the week proved much more uplifintg.

Bradley Wiggins, the man who opened the Olympic Ceremonies just one day after his domination at the Tour de France, held the lead in the Men's Individual Cycling Time Trials. There is a reason for this: underneath the amiable, bloke-next-door, likes-a-laugh, family-man exterior, is a stone-cold competitor. He might crave an ordinary life, but Wiggins is an extraordinary man. 

Speaking at a packed media conference after collecting his fourth Olympic gold on Wednesday, Wiggins gave a hint at what makes him so very unusual. Sat to his right in a room at Hampton Court Palace, was the man who beat him in that world championship time trial last September, Tony Martin. The man he had just beat over 44km through south west London. For many years, Fabian raised the bar and everybody was chasing him," Wiggins explained. "It probably peaked for him at the 2009 Worlds, when he annihilated the field, and we said, 'how are we going to beat this guy?' Now, you can either give up at that point ... or you can say, 'this guy is an incredible athlete, let's look at what he's doing'.” The details of this process are not really the point - the hours spent changing his cadence, or pedal speed; the conditioning work to improve his power-to-weight ratio; the experimentation with equipment and positioning on the bike - what is important is that when faced with not one, but two potential legends, he took notes and tried harder. 

This is why Wiggins was able to come back from that 24th-place finish in the 2010 Tour, and the crash in 2011, to become the first British rider to win the Tour de France, the first Tour winner to win an Olympic gold in the same season, and the first Brit to win seven Olympic medals, surpassing Sir Steve Redgrave's six. Having already been named as the owner of "the most famous sideburns since Elvis Presley" by French newspaper L'Equipe, "Wiggo" can take or leave these subjective judgements, they are not his style. What he does care about, however, is his sport. 

"They keep banging on about legacy but ultimately it's the athletes who go out and perform who inspire the next generation," he told a room full of journalists. "The great thing about cycling is that this facility here didn't cost anything to build. They didn't even resurface the road, it was terrible in places. So when this is all over anybody can go ride that [London] circuit and pretend they're one of us. That's the great thing with cycling, anybody can do it." 

And I saw it happening live, right in front of me. For the few short seconds they passed I technically saw history in the making.