"Gold at last!"

After bronze in Beijing and silver in London, Nino Schurter has done it and wins the gold medal in the mountain bike cross country race at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Jaroslav Kulhavy, with whom Schurter had a thrilling duel until the end, reached the finish line in second place.

by B. Fleckenstein

The surprise at the start, as reported in the 3rd edition of Sportguide Bike, was the participation of Peter Sagan with the number 50, but the experts did not give the road world champion serious medal chances.
In the first line the favorites lined up at the start. Schurter alongside Kulhavy and Marco Fontana, the bronze medalist from London. And it was Fontana who took the lead after the start. Schurter was followed by Peter Sagan, who put himself in a top position with a fabulous sprint. Kulhavy was in fifth place and kept up with Schurter. Julien Absalon, the two-time Olympic champion and one of the big favorites, was nowhere to be seen.
After the first lap, Peter Sagan, who defied all the critics to reach the third intermediate place, had a flat tire on the front, as did Fontana, who also had to deal with a defect. And it was still a long way to the technical zone. That was bad luck for the two and the end of the medal dreams.

Kulhavy took the lead for a short time, followed by Schurter, who never let himself fall behind. The Italian Braidot and the Spaniard Coloma struggled to follow them. In the middle of the second lap it became clear that the fight for gold would be between the opponents Kulhavy and Schurter. Matthias Flückiger, the second Swiss rider in fifth place, was riding together with Absalon and 39 seconds behind. On the other hand, Frenchman Maxime Marotte fought his way to the front and disputed the bronze medal from Spaniard Carlos Coloma.
Nino Schurter and Jaroslav Kulhavy continued to pull away. It was a constant head-to-head race. The two were tactical and waited for mistakes from their opponents. Coloma and Marott followed them in the fifth lap with a gap of 35 seconds. And at the end of the fifth lap Schurter attacked, because he has identified a weakness in Kulhavy, whom he had already overtaken in the steep terrain.Kulhavy had nothing to counter this and had to let Schurter go. When crossing the finish line for the last lap, the Swiss skied 33 seconds ahead of the Czech.
Kulhavy was beaten and Nino Schurter rode towards his triumph and crossed the finish line after 1:38:28 hours in ecstasy. Gold at last! Jaroslav Kulhavy took silver, 50 seconds behind. Third place went to Carlos Coloma, who was able to overtake Frenchman Marotte in the final third of the race and bowed to the applauding spectators before crossing the finish line, expressing his joy at winning the bronze medal.

Ranking list
1. Nino Schurter (Switzerland) 1:38:28 hrs.
2nd Jaroslav Kulhavy (Czech Republic) + 50 sec.
3rd Carlos Coloma (Spain) + 1:23 min.
4th Maxime Marotte (France) + 1:33 min.
5 Jhonnatan Botero (Colombia) + 2:16 min
6th Matthias Flückiger (Switzerland) + 2:24 min.
7th Luca Braidot (Italy) + 2:57 min.
8. Julien Absalon (France) + 3:15 min.