Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet has won a dramatic Olympic road race in Rio today to continue a dream 2016 season, with a crash on the final descent taking out Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali and Sergio Henao of Colombia when they seemed poised to contest the medals with Poland’s Rafal Majka.

Nibali, Henao and Majka were off the front of the race with 12 kilometres remaining on the way down from the third and final climb to Vista Cinesa when the Italian and Colombian came down.

Majka managed to avoid them, and suddenly found himself alone at the front of the race, with a select group of eight riders – including Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas – chasing around a quarter of a minute behind.

But shortly afterwards, Thomas – the country’s last hope for a medal with Chris Froome already distanced in what proved to be a tough, attritional race – also crashed.

Twice an Olympic champion on the track, the Welshman was able to complete the race in 11th place – Froome was 12th, and Adam Yates 15th – but the medals had long been decided.

After the final descent bottomed out, Van Avermaet and Denmark’s Jakob Fuglsang attacked from the chasing group to set out in pursuit of Majka, and caught the leader 1.5 kilometres from the finish line at Copacabana.

The Pole was spent following his efforts to stay away and finished with the bronze medal, while Van Avermaet, the strongest sprinter of the three, launched his sprint early to beat Fuglsang to the line.

His Olympic gold medal comes in a season in which the BMC Racing rider has won the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Tirreno-Adriatico and a stage of the Tour de France, where he also wore the race leader’s yellow jersey for three days.

After taking Belgium’s first Olympic gold medal since 1996, Van Avermaet said: “When I saw the crash I was confused about how many riders were still up the road. I was working with Fuglsang and we saw Majka.

“We knew it was possible. I knew I had to hang on. I am so happy for gold. Everyone said all week it was for everyone else.”

Fuglsang said: “It was a crazy race. A good race to watch. He [Van Avermaet] was willing to work because he knows he’s stronger than me in the sprint.”

Team GB coach Rod Ellingworth said: “In general, great team work. The way the lads wanted to race was how they actually raced. It was just unfortunate about the crash at the end. When you think about how many riders crashed down there it was pretty mad.

“Looking at Geraint there he was proper, proper disappointed. He knew that was a proper gold medal chance.”