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Anna Kiesenhofer wins surprise gold in 'stunning' Tokyo Olympic road race

"We've got the biggest upset we've ever seen in cycling at the Olympic Games in the road race"...

Austria's Anna Kiesenhofer took an incredible victory beating the favourites to win gold at the Olympic road race in Tokyo.

The 30-year-old, who currently doesn't have an elite trade team contract for next year, rode away from all her competitors as confusion reigned in the bunch behind. 

Chris Boardman praised her remarkable ride, and said: "She has just ridden valiantly from start to finish... it is the day of the underdog."

She attacked with four other riders from the gun and  rode away by herself with 41km to go as the breakaway raced over the Kagosaka Pass. 

Kiesenhofer, who also has a maths degree from Cambridge University, held off a solo counter-attack from Annemiek van Vleuten (Netherlands) with 51km to go.

Simon Brotherton, commentating as the Austrian crossed the line, said: "We've got the biggest upset we've ever seen in cycling at the Olympic Games in the road race.

"The cycling world will be stunned." 

Van Vleuten made a late attack and held off the peloton to take silver and Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) also broke clear of the chasing bunch to take the bronze medal.

At the finish Van Vleuten admitted she didn't realise that Kiesenhofer had already won and said that as she crossed the line she thought she was taking gold.

Speaking at the finish line, she said: "I didn’t know. I was wrong. I didn’t know."

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7 comments

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the little onion | 2 years ago
2 likes

Emma pooley also has a degree from Cambridge. Engineering I think, and a PhD from ETH Zurich, which is not a shabby set  of academic palmares.

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Chris Hayes | 2 years ago
3 likes

Another incredible ride.  I trust that this will get her the contract she deserves....though being an Olympic Gold Medalist maths post doc in Lausanne can't be all that bad! 

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kil0ran replied to Chris Hayes | 2 years ago
3 likes

Undoubtedly pays better than a career in women's pro cycling.

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Kapelmuur replied to kil0ran | 2 years ago
0 likes

I'm sure it does, Swiss academics are very well paid.

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Chris Hayes replied to kil0ran | 2 years ago
2 likes

That was kind of my point...

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jaymack | 2 years ago
2 likes

Probably the best advert for cycling that I've seen for many years! A fantastic race

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Freddy56 | 2 years ago
1 like

delighted for her.

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