Date | 26 July 1976 — 10:00 | |
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Status | Olympic | |
Location | Circuit Mont-Royal, Montréal, Québec | |
Participants | 134 from 40 countries | |
Format | 177.49 km. (110.31 miles) mass start race. |
The course was 177.49 km. over the hilly Mont-Royal Circuit. The course had been used for the 1974 World Championships and the favorite was probably Ryszard Szurkowski of Poland, who was 1973 World Champion and had placed second on the course in 1974. The 1974 champion was his teammate, Janusz Kowalski, but he did not compete in Montréal. On the sixth lap, a group of 10 riders got away, and formed the winning group. On the last lap, Bernt Johansson was able to successfully break away and won the gold medal by 31 seconds. The winner of the sprint for the silver was Peter Thaler, but he was relegated to ninth place for interfering with other riders in the sprint and failing to keep his line. The final sprint included an American, George Mount, unusual for that era, who finished sixth. Szurkowski had missed the winning break and finished 12th, among the leaders of the trailing sprint. Of the three medalists, only Johansson would have a notable pro career. His best performance came in the 1979 Giro d’Italia, in which he placed third and won two stages.