Road Race, Men

The course of the 1964 road race began in front of the Takao Train Station, and comprised eight laps of a 24.354 km. course, making the final distance 194.832 km. The course featured a fairly steep, but short, climb of 65 metres at the 11th km., followed by a short descent, and then a mild climb over the next few kilometers. However, the course was not really difficult enough to break apart the peleton. In addition, it was held in a heavy rain, which slowed the pace somewhat.

The Amateur Road Race World Championships had been won in 1961 by Jean Jourden (FRA), in 1962-63 by Italy’s Renato Bongioni and Flaviano Vicentini, respectively. But none of these three entered the Olympic Road Race, both Italians having turned pro. Earlier in 1964, the 1964 World Championship was won by the young Belgian rider, Eddy Merckx.

The relatively easy course kept the pack mostly together throughout the race. Of the 132 starters, 107 finished, and the first 99 riders crossed the finishing line together. A few break-outs occurred, but the last of those ended 15 km from the finish, Merckx tried to get away with 1.5 km to go, but only managed a gap of some 20 m before getting caught by the pack. The two leaders of the sprint-out were Italy’s Mario Zanin and Denmark’s Kjell Rodian, with Zanin narrowly edging Rodian to win the gold medal.

Eddy Merckx was right there at the finish but the great Belgian rider was not a strong enough sprinter to win the race, and he finished 12th. His time would come. Merckx turned professional in April 1965 and became the greatest rider in the professional peleton, and is usually considered the greatest cyclist of all-time. He was later nicknamed “The Cannibal” for his aggressive riding style and never-ending hunger for victories, which helped him win five Tour de France titles, five Giro d’Italia titles, three World Professional Road titles, and multiple wins in the one-day classics.

The results of the 1964 road race are somewhat in dispute. The 1964 Official Report and 1964 Official Results both list “all” finishers, but they only agree in the first 35 places. In fact, the Report only lists 86 finishers while the Results lists 107 finishers. We have consulted multiple sources to try to make sense of this problem, including contacting national federations and some of the riders involved in the race. We believe that the following results are an accurate representation of the finishers, but recognize that this problem may not be fully resolved.