Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium) won a gruelling Olympic men’s road race after a day of innumerable attacks and counter attacks, and an unfortunate number of crashes.
With full race coverage on the BBC, most people sat down for some or all of the very long parcours. Probably before they’d caught their breath from such an exciting race, plenty of people took to Twitter to let us know what they though.
David Millar kicks things off, saying what many of us were definitely thinking
OMFG THAT WAS A BIKE RACE.
— David Millar (@millarmind) August 6, 2016
Orica-BikeExchange‘s comms man takes a slightly more restrained view
Good bike race that
— Brian Nygaard (@nygaardbn) August 6, 2016
Alex Dowsett, himself in the frame for a ride at the Olympics earlier this year, clearly enjoyed being a spectator
What. A. Race. Got to be the most exciting this year. #Rio2016 #RoadCycling
— Alex Dowsett (@alexdowsett) August 6, 2016
Tejay van Garderen, absent due to his fears over the zika virus, is very pleased for his BMC Racing teammate
https://twitter.com/tejay_van/status/762001337353506816
That’s one way of putting it, Tosh
Whahhahahaaaa ! @GregVanAvermaet ! THIS IS NOT NORMAL !
— Tosh Van der Sande (@Toshvds) August 6, 2016
Learning from their rider Geraint Thomas‘s Twitter performance at the Tour de France, Team Sky put a gif to good use
What a race! pic.twitter.com/LhMojVbsHn
— Team Sky 🚲 (@TeamSky) August 6, 2016
Fair enough really
.@LaurensDePlus in tears after @GregVanAvermaet' victory #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/79TfDjlk2U
— CyclingHub (@CyclingHubTV) August 6, 2016
Everyone’s favourite fictional Belgian gives an insight into GVA’s life away from the bike
THE OLYMPICS GOLD WORLD CHAMPION @GregVanAvermaet LOOKS AFTER MY CAT THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL FOR BELGIUM 😊🇧🇪#Rio2016 #KennysCat 🐈
— Kenny Van Vlaminck (@KVanVlaminck) August 6, 2016
Several people raised a very interesting question: Was this course really too hard for Peter Sagan?
He and Van Averamet are similar riders and both very strong in brutal one day races. Let’s hope Sagan performs in the mountain biking
Wonder how Sagan would have done 👀
— Ian Bibby (@IanBibby86) August 6, 2016
You have to wonder if Sagan would have had more of a chance than he thought on that course.
— Daniel Lloyd (@daniellloyd1) August 6, 2016
Cycling Weekly‘s own Gregor Brown brings up something that the UCI might consider for future Worldtour races
Now if all races had 5man teams…. #Rio2016
— Gregor Brown (@gregorbrown) August 6, 2016