France’s Julien Absalon took his mountain bike status to new heights yesterday when he became the first rider to defend the men’s Olympic cross country title.
Jean-Christophe Peraud finished second 1 minute, 7 seconds behind to also hand France the silver medal, while Nino Schurter raced ahead of Swiss compatriot and world champion Christoph Sauser late in the race to claim the bronze.
Absalon kept the gold in French hands for the third Olympics in a row — following Miguel Martinez’s victory in Sydney in 2000 — thanks to a commanding display early in the 36km race that left his big rivals trailing.
As early as the second of the race’s hilly, 4.5km laps, Absalon had virtually blown a hole in the medal hopes of a trio of Swiss contenders who had expected to challenge him for gold.
Sauser, whose world championship victory earlier this summer meant Absalon failed to win the world title for the fifth consecutive year, disappeared from the race after three laps, by which time he trailed the Frenchman by 51 seconds.
Before the halfway stage, France began rubbing their hands in anticipation of another cycling one-two — following their gold and silver in the women’s BMX on Friday — when Peraud raced into second place.
After four laps Peraud trailed Absalon by 33 seconds, with Sauser and Schurter in third and fourth.
Given the time to choose a careful track and avoid potential mishaps on the treacherous course, Absalon was racing with purpose and took his lead on Peraud to 54 seconds by the end of lap five.
Italian Marco Fontana came over line third 2 minutes, 13 seconds later among a small group which contained Sauser and Schurter and two other riders.
By the end of the penultimate lap, Fontana had dropped out of the race for bronze as Sauser and Schurter came over the line at 2 minutes, 38 seconds behind Absalon.
The 28-year-old Absalon had blamed the onset of dehydration at the world championships in Italy where he lost the world title to Sauser as the Swiss swept the podium.
Drinking heartily from his water bottle each time he passed the finish, he made an exception at the end of the race, where he came over the line with his arms spread out in triumph in a time of 1 hour, 55 minutes, 59 seconds.
Earlier, Sabine Spitz of Germany took the gold medal in the women’s mountain bike race, adding it to the bronze she won at the Athens Games four years ago.
Spitz finished six laps around the 4.45km course in 1 hour, 45 minutes, 11 seconds. She stopped about 5m from the finish, hopped off her bike and carried it across the finish line.
Spitz managed to get ahead of world champion Margarita Fullana on the first lap and from then on she was on her own.
Spitz, 36, was the 2003 world champion and was competing in her third Olympics. She said she believed that sometimes being a little older was a benefit in mountain biking.
“Mountain biking is a very tough sport mentally, so with age you can get stronger,” she said.
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