‘I was wrong’: Dutch cyclist van Vleuten thinks she’s won Olympic gold…. only to discover Austrian rival has ALREADY crossed line

On Jul 25, 2021

Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten thought she had scooped her country’s first gold medal of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics only to be told that Austria’s Anna Kiesenhofer had already crossed the line more than one minute earlier.

In a stunning upset, the 30-year-old Kiesenhofer became the first person to win an Olympic road race medal from her homeland.

The Austrian – who is unsigned by a professional team – was part of an early breakaway group in Tokyo before hitting the front on her own with around 40km to go.

Kiesenhofer never looked back, blitzing the field to finish the 137km course in a time of 3 hours, 52 minutes and 45 seconds.

Anna Kiesenhofer of #AUT takes #gold in the #CyclingRoad women’s road race on her #Olympics debut!#StrongerTogether | @tokyo2020 | @UCI_cycling pic.twitter.com/abW1tiNM4m

— Olympics (@Olympics) July 25, 2021

Trailing her by 75 seconds was van Vleuten, who in confusing scenes was unaware that her rival had broken away to open up a major gap.

Instead, the Dutchwoman thought she had stolen a march on Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini to clinch gold, with van Vleuten stretching out her arms in celebration on crossing the finish line at the Fuji International Speedway.

Annemiek van Vleuten won the silver medal, Elisa Longo Borghini the bronze. Annemiek didn’t know that there is another rider up the road so she celebrated the victory. Must have been a terrible feeling when she realized what happened…. 😬 #CyclingRoad pic.twitter.com/BgkARUxB7c

— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) July 25, 2021

Annemiek van Vleuten of #NED takes #silver in the #CyclingRoad women’s road race.#StrongerTogether | @Tokyo2020 | @UCI_cycling pic.twitter.com/Hggy8Hlk1z

— Olympics (@Olympics) July 25, 2021

However, after embracing her team with joy the 2019 world champion then appeared confused after being told of the result.

“I didn’t know. I was wrong. I didn’t know,” said the 38-year-old veteran, who had dusted herself off from a crash earlier during the race.

Avv: “I didn’t know. I was wrong. I didn’t know”

Van Vleuten confirms she thought she had won the Olympic title #TOKYO2020

— José Been (@TourDeJose) July 25, 2021

The confusion was put down to the fact that riders in the Olympic road race cannot contact their teams via radios during the race, meaning van Vleuten and her fellow Dutch riders – who were among the strong favorites for the title – were unaware that Kiesenhofer had surged ahead.

Summing up the chaos, Team GB rider Lizzie Deignan, who finished 11th, also thought van Vleuten had won.

“The best person won the bike race here today. Annemiek was clearly the strongest so, you know, shout out to her,” she told the BBC.

And indeed Lizzie Deignan in a BBC interview just said that van Vleuten had won — so the peloton didn’t know there was someone up the road. Now, is that an argument for race radios? Or is an argument for the opposite? #Tokyo2020

— Michael Hutchinson (@Doctor_Hutch) July 25, 2021

The reality was more disappointment for the van Vleuten, who was leading five years ago at the Rio Games before a horror crash left her with a concussion and three fractured bones in her lower back.

Meanwhile the shock triumph for Kiesenhofer, who is a mathematician and a graduate of Vienna and Cambridge universities, brought the first medal for Austria at this year’s Tokyo Games.