On the first day of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the Men's Cycling event worked their way through the London countryside on a 249.5 km trek for a gold medal. As the race entered the final 7 km Columbian rider Rigoberto Uran and Kazakhstan rider Alexander Vinokourov pulled away from the pack, trading places through the stretch. Vinokourov, in likely his final career race, used all the veteran guile at his disposal and caught Uran looking in the final sprint to win his first career gold medal.
Uran looked to his left, trying to keep in front of Vinokourov but Vinokourov came back to the right as Uran looked left and took off, sealing the victory. Vinokourov won silver in the 2000 Summer Games and has four Tour de France stage wins in his career.
Swedish cyclist Fabian Cancellara was near the front of the pack, trying to follow up his 2008 silver medal in Beijing, but took a turn too sharp losing traction and crashed into the side wall. Unlike things like the Tour de France, the Olympic cycling as an individual event and Cancellara is arguably the best solo-cyclist in the world but lost too much ground finishing up 101st.
Tour de France individual winner Bradley Wiggins challenged near the top of the field late, finishing up the race in 98th place and British and gold medal favorite Mark Cavendish finished 28th overall.
American rider Taylor Phinney just missed a medal, finishing up in fourth place just short of Norway's Alexander Kristoff with a time of 5:46:05. Phinney looked noticeably dejected after the race.
Gold Medal: Alexander Vinokourov, Kazakhstan, 5:45:57
Silver Medal: Rigoberto Uran, Columbia, +0:00
Bronze Medal: Alexander Kristoff, Norway, +0:08
For complete coverage of the 2012 London Olympics, vist SB Nation's Summer Olympics hub.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.