Date | 20 July 1980 — 10:00 | |
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Status | Olympic | |
Location | 100-km Team Trial Course, Minskoye Shosse, near Moskva | |
Participants | 92 from 23 countries | |
Format | Four-man teams. |
The favorites were the Soviet Union and East Germany, the 1979 World Champions, but the race was dominated by the Soviets. They led by almost one minute at the 25 km. checkpoint. They did not increase the lead much but were never in danger, leading at every checkpoint, and finally defeated the GDR by 1½ minutes to win their consecutive gold medal in the event. The battle for the silver medal was very close. East Germany and Czechoslovakia had almost the same time at the 25 km. checkpoint, but East Germany had opened up 23 seconds by the 75 km. interval. But the Czechs closed very quickly, and East Germany eventually won the silver medal by less than one second. With the American boycott, the race was almost an Eastern European championship. Of the top eight teams, only Italy in fifth and Finland in seventh could break-up the Eastern dominance.