Date | 27 September 2000 — 10:00 | |
---|---|---|
Status | Olympic | |
Location | Cycling Road Course, Centennial Parklands, Sydney, New South Wales | |
Participants | 154 from 41 countries | |
Format | 239.4 km. (148.7 miles) mass start race. |
The professional peleton was again present. As always, in a one-day race, choosing a favorite was difficult. The top professional riders were Lance Armstrong, who had won the 1999-2000 Tour de France and would eventually win the race seven times consecutively, and Jan Ullrich, who had won the 1997 Tour de France. But neither was considered a great sprinter. With 25 km. to do, the peleton made a grave tactical error when it allowed three riders from the same professional team, Deutsche Telekom (later T-Mobile), to get away together. The riders were Kazakhstan’s Aleksandr Vinokurov, and the Germans Andreas Klöden and Ullrich. Vinokurov and Klöden served as domestiques on the Deutsche Telekom team, supporting and riding for Ullrich and the finish, with Ullrich winning the sprint comfortably for the gold medal, was a foregone conclusion. Armstrong missed the winning break and finished 13th.