The men's individual road race was a road bicycle racing event held as part of the Cycling at the 1968 Summer Olympics programme. 144 cyclists from 44 nations took part. The maximum number of cyclists per nation was four. It was held on 23 October 1968. The course, just short of 25 kilometres, was covered 8 times for a total distance of 196.2 kilometres. The event was won by Pierfranco Vianelli of Italy, the nation's second consecutive victory in the men's individual road race (putting Italy over France in most gold medals, three to two). It was the fourth consecutive Games that an Italian cyclist finished first or second. Leif Mortensen's silver was Denmark's second consecutive silver medal in the event. Gösta Pettersson earned Sweden's first medal in the event with his bronze.
Background
This was the eighth appearance of the event, previously held in 1896 and then at every Summer Olympics since 1936. It replaced the individual time trial event that had been held from 1912 to 1932 (and which would be reintroduced alongside the road race in 1996). There "was no heavy favorite as the last three World Championships had seen nine different riders on the podium."
Barbados, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Lebanon, and Madagascar each made their debut in the men's individual road race; West Germany competed separately for the first time. Great Britain made its eighth appearance in the event, the only nation to have competed in each appearance to date.
Competition format and course
The mass-start race was on a course that covered eight laps of a 24.525 kilometres circuit, for a total of 196.2 kilometres. It was a "quite hilly" course.Official Report, vol. 3, p. 215.
Schedule
All times are Central Standard Time (UTC-6)
Date Time Round Wednesday, 23 October 1968 9:00 Final
Results
Rank Cyclist Nation Time Pierfranco Vianelli 4:41:25 Leif Mortensen 4:42:49 Gösta Pettersson 4:43:154Stéphan Abrahamian 4:43:365René Pijnen 4:43:366Jean-Pierre Monseré 4:43:517Tomas Pettersson 4:43:588Giovanni Bramucci 4:43:589Martín Rodríguez 4:43:5810Marian Kegel 4:44:0011Jan Krekels 4:44:0912Burkhard Ebert 4:44:1013Thorleif Andresen 4:44:1014Tore Milsett 4:44:1215Álvaro Pachón 4:44:1316José Gómez 4:44:1317Valery Yardy 4:44:1518Roger De Vlaeminck 4:44:2419André Dierickx 4:45:3220Alain Vasseur 4:45:3621Imre Géra 4:45:5722Saturnino Rustrián 4:46:1323Jan Smolík 4:46:3024Harrie Jansen 4:46:3025Cvitko Bilić 4:46:3126Ole Højlund Pedersen 4:46:3127Agustín Juárez 4:46:3228Luis Zubero 4:46:3429Jørgen Emil Hansen 4:46:3430Pedro Sánchez 4:46:3731Flavio Martini 4:47:5632Yury Dmitriyev 4:47:5733Daniel Ducreux 4:47:5734Dave Rollinson 4:47:5835Erik Pettersson 4:47:5836Heriberto Díaz 4:47:5937Raimo Honkanen 4:47:5938Svend Erik Bjerg 4:48:0339Rudi Valenčič 4:48:0340Roberto Breppe 4:48:0741Ferenc Keserű 4:50:3042Miguel Lasa 4:51:0543Jesús Sarabia 4:51:0544John Howard 4:52:4545Jürgen Tschan 4:52:5046Mauno Uusivirta 4:52:5047Jan Erik Gustavsen 4:54:4148Evaristo Oliva 4:57:0749Jorge Inés 4:57:0750Brian Jolly 4:57:4251Curt Söderlund 5:01:1252Des Thomson 5:02:3353Tekeste Woldu 5:05:1254Roger Gilson 5:05:1255Marcel Roy 5:05:1356Ørnulf Andresen 5:05:1757Ole Wackström 5:05:1858András Takács 5:05:2159Kazimierz Jasiński 5:08:2560Gerard Lettoli 5:10:2261Enzo Frisoni 5:12:4662Zygmunt Hanusik 5:20:5963Miguel Ángel Sánchez 5:20:5964Joe Jones 5:30:13 — Juan Alves Héctor Cassina Gerardo Cavallieri Ronald Jonker Peter McDermott Kevin Morgan Donald Wilson Colin Forde Kensley Reece Richard Roett Michael Stoute Jozef Schoeters Jules Béland Yves Landry Jean Barnabé Constantin Kabemba Samuel Kibamba Ignace Mandjambi Miguel Samacá José Sánchez Humberto Solano José Manuel Soto Sergio Martínez Roberto Menéndez Ulises Váldez Raúl Marcelo Vázquez Noé Medina Victor Morales Arnulfo Pozo Hipólito Pozo Mauricio Bolaños Francisco Funes David Miranda Juan Molina Agustín Tamames Yemane Negassi Mehari Okubamicael Mikael Saglimbeni Raimo Suikkanen Jean-Pierre Paranteau Ortwin Czarnowski Dieter Koslar Billy Bilsland Les West Francisco Cuque Tibor Magyar Peter Doyle Morris Foster Liam Horner George Tajirian Tino Conti Gwon Jung-hyeon Tarek Abou Al Dahab Solo Razafinarivo Ng Joo Pong Johari Ramli Gabriel Cuéllar Joop Zoetemelk Bryce Beeston John Dean Richie Thomson Zenon Czechowski Emil Rusu Bruno Hubschmid Petr Hladík Somchai Chantarasamrit Suriyong Hemint Somkuan Seehapant Chainarong Sophonpong Deng Chueng-hwai Liu Cheng-tao Shue Ming-shu Vladislav Nelyubin Anatoliy Starkov Daniel Butler David Chauner Wes Wessberg Bùi Văn Hoàng Trương Kim Hùng Tanasije Kuvalja
References