All day the questions was can team GB control the peloton? But in the end, the arrogance of the Brits (Ed note: there was an asterisk after the word Brits by mistake. Now its gone) gave out and on the final climb of Box Hill it all unravelled for them and a huge group got away which had been away for some time slowly increased their advantage. Spain had three in the break, Switzerland had three too-until an surprisingly poor spot of bike handling by Fabian Cancellara caused him to crash out.
As the race got under 5 km to go, two riders, Alexander Vinokourov and Rigoberto Uran, took advantage of the reduced break and stayed away to contest the gold. But really considering the two riders, the odds were totally on Vino's side and the silver medalist at the Sydney games easily outfoxed the climber from Colombia for the win.
For Vino this is an amazing finish to a long, storied career. For the other stronger teams today they can only rue their missed chances. That's on them. Today is the day for Kazakhstan!
Top 20:
1 87 VINOKUROV Alexandr 4:25:50 4:47:27 5:45:57 +
2 52 URAN URAN Rigoberto 4:25:50 4:47:27 5:45:57 +
3 122 KRISTOFF Alexander 4:25:20 4:47:06 5:46:05 +
4 29 PHINNEY Taylor 4:25:20 4:47:27 5:46:05 +
5 120 LAGUTIN Sergey 4:25:50 4:47:27 5:46:05 +
6 24 O’GRADY Stuart 4:24:57 4:47:06 5:46:05 +
7 18 ROELANDTS Jurgen 4:24:57 4:47:06 5:46:05 +
8 40 RAST Gregory 4:24:57 4:47:06 5:46:05 +
9 8 PAOLINI Luca 4:24:57 4:47:06 5:46:05 +
10 82 BAUER Jack 4:24:57 4:47:06 5:46:05 +
11 31 BOOM Lars 4:24:57 4:47:06 5:46:05 +
12 96 FUGLSANG Jakob 4:24:57 4:47:06 5:46:05 +
13 43 COSTA Rui Alberto Faria 4:25:34 4:47:06 5:46:05 +
14 3 SANCHEZ GIL Luis Leon 4:25:50 4:47:27 5:46:05 +
15 85 KREUZIGER Roman 4:24:57 4:47:06 5:46:05 +
16 51 HENAO MONTOYA Sergio Luis 4:25:50 4:47:27 5:46:05 +
17 88 GRIVKO Andriy 4:24:57 4:47:06 5:46:05 +
18 4 VALVERDE BELMONTE Alejandro 4:25:50 4:47:27 5:46:05 +
19 17 GILBERT Philippe 4:24:57 4:46:23 - +
20 54 CHAVANEL Sylvain 4:24:57 4:47:06 - +