Road Race, Individual, Men

The defending champion Jan Ullrich, was back for another shot at gold, but the world’s top road cyclist, Lance Armstrong, elected not to compete after winning his sixth consecutive Tour de France in 2004 (later annulled when he doping conspiracy was revealed in 2012). Early in 2004, the favorite for the race seemed to be Davide Rebellin, who won three classics races, Flèche-Wallone, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and the Amstel Gold Race. But as the summer wore on, his form went off a little. Rather than riding in the hilly country outside of Athens, the race was contested in the city, and the relatively flat course was not difficult enough to break apart the professional peleton. Into the last lap, 40 riders remained together, but a foursome of Paolo Bettini (ITA), Sérgio Paulinho (POR), Axel Merckx (BEL), and Erik Zabel (GER) got away together. On reputation, Zabel was the most highly considered, especially as a sprinter, but Bettini and Paulinho got away to win gold and silver. Merckx, the son of Eddy Merckx, chased their break, but did not catch it, but managed to stay away to win the bronze, with Zabel winning the field sprint. Bettini was a solid professional rider. He had won several classics from 2000-2004, and a stage in the Tour de France in 2000, and he would win the World Championships road race in 2006-07.

Four riders, 3 Americans and a Canadian, were retrospectively disqualified from the race following the investigation into the US Postal team doping scandal.