The distinction couldn’t have been extra apparent between the skilled champions and the younger upstarts after the boys’s Madison within the Paris Olympics.
While Elia Viviani and Simone Consonni of Italy framed their silver amid a number of Olympic medals, and Michael Mørkøv in contrast his new bronze medal to a dream gold medal within the Madison in Tokyo, shock gold medalist Rui Oliveira spontaneously dropped f-bombs in his disbelief that his first professional win as a bike owner was gold on the Olympics.
“I’ve no phrases. This complete factor is a dream,” an astonished Oliveira mentioned after the race. “I do not suppose I’m dwelling this. This is simply, ‘What the fuck.’ I’ve by no means gained a single race in my life. It was so many disappointments to undergo these years and to lastly – if somebody informed me I might win my first race on the Olympics, I might say you are fucking kidding me.”
Oliveira helped Tadej Pogačar win the Giro d’Italia this 12 months. He was a wingman for Juan Ayuso in final 12 months’s Vuelta a España. His greatest outcome earlier than Saturday was second on stage 19 of the 2021 Vuelta behind Magnus Cort. He’s a helper, a domestique, a second rate-rider. To win a gold medal defies the chances whereas on the similar time confirming that he’s throughout the attain of the world’s greatest riders, as are many domestiques his this sport’s ‘marginal positive factors’ mindset.
Oliveria’s unbridled pleasure at successful the gold medal is what makes the Olympic Games the Olympic Games. It’s a carnival that offers the outsiders an opportunity to defeat the gladiator and win fame and fortune with their fleeting bodily varieties, and he and Leitao placed on a stellar present.
“We’re not even near being one of many favourites for this race however we rolled our hearts out and with all my brothers and household right here, we pushed to the bounds,” Oliveira mentioned. “We did an ideal race within the final laps. We simply did not blow up and all the opposite nations blew up.”
The gold medal, earned along with Omnium world champion and Olympic Omnium silver medalist Iuir Leitao was a primary for Portugal in all sports activities exterior of athletics, and for Oliveira, it was the primary win of his life.
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It additionally got here because the type of fairytale come-from-behind win that has fashioned the script of Hollywood blockbusters.
Oliveira and Leitao had been 14 factors down on the leaders and properly out of medal competition three-quarters of the best way via the 200-lap race. But they’d a ‘Hail Mary’ plan to win the race within the final quarter, and the one technique to do it might be to lap the sphere within the last 50 laps.
Italy’s skilled duo Viviani and Consonni led the race forward of Denmark’s Mørkøv and Niklas Larsen, and Portugal had been trying to get into the medals. It can be a tall order to lap the sphere, however the aggressive race had shredded the legs and the nerves of even the perfect riders, and the time to assault had come.
“Iuri informed me, 50 laps to go, let’s go for it,” Oliveira mentioned. “And I informed him I really feel like somebody goes to assault now so we simply have to attend for that assault after which we go for it.
“(After the assault got here), we simply went for them and I noticed we had been actually with good legs so we simply saved going. We put the stress on after which – it should blow up and everybody blew up. We simply saved using.
“I seemed on the board seven laps to go and we’re in first place. I used to be like this cannot be true however… ultimately, [we’re] Olympic champions!”
Leitao was extra composed within the post-race press convention, however his racing type has been simply as eager-beaver as Oliveira’s verbiage. At the world championships in Glasgow final 12 months, he got here virtually actually out of nowhere to stun the sphere within the males’s Omnium along with his relentless assaults and gained the rainbow jersey.
When Portugal attacked early within the Olympic Madison, his rivals might need anticipated it to be the flash within the pan. But he knew the Madison can be a unique sort of occasion.
“The final 25 laps had been presupposed to be full fuel as a result of we had been predicting that everyone was actually, actually fatigued, so we knew if we might simply stick with it, they’ll open on our wheel, and we simply needed to preserve going. And we had been certain that we might break them. And ultimately, we had been proper,” Leitao mentioned.
“I knew the factors had been actually shut. We gained the penultimate dash, after which we took the lap. We had been simply two factors forward. We had been slightly bit afraid of the Italians as a result of they’re actually quick within the dash, and in addition the Denmark guys, however I attempted to save lots of my golden bullet to the ultimate. We had a plan for me to do the final dash, and ultimately, we had the outcome we needed.”
In the tip, Italy botched an change within the closing laps and Consonni crashed, leaving Viviani helpless to observe their assaults, and what might have been a fairly heated finale become a denouement for Italy as they watched Oliveira and Leitao trip away to gold.
The Portuguese duo could have been unaware of their rivals’ misfortune as a result of they actually did not count on their plan to return off.
“I’ve by no means gained a single race in my life,” Oliveria mentioned. “To be Olympic champion as my first win is, properly, I nonetheless do not know if that is all actual, actually. That’s insane.”