Mark Cavendish – the major British hope for the race
The British team (max of 5 men in a squad)
David Millar, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Mark Cavendish and Ian Stannard the other members
And there off.
Wiggins is of course just back from his famous victory in the Tour de France but his job today will be to help Mark Cavendish who is the major British hope.
They’ve just gone over Putney bridge. Cavendish will be a big favourite if he can be there at the end, he has the best sprint finish of any of them. But can he stay there, the other countries will do there best to be clear of him before then
There 145 riders in the race in total
10km gone and no major attempt to break away from the field yet or peloton as it’s called in cycling
Bernhard Eisel the Polish rider off his bike. A member of the Sky team.
Coming up to Richmond gate in Richmond park now. This is amazing for me to watch as it’s very close to my childhood home. We’re watching the first attack now and the field is starting to string out. A couple of riders have broken clear.
Oh no a dog in the road! No fallers luckily
Another aggressive attack coming, there really starting to string out now!
A sizeable group has broken clear led by the Australian Stuart O’Grady
Huge crowds all the way. Brilliant to see. There coming past Hampton Court Palace
No British riders in the break away. It’s a mix of many different countries but still very early in the race.
The British riders lead the peloton with Bradley Wiggins no 15 in the front. The commentators seem very nervous the gap to the leaders is now 3 minutes
Wow almost a 4 minute gap to the leaders already with 214km to go. We should remember though this is a very long race. Longer than any stage of the tour de France and there are 9 laps of Boxhill to negotiate which will be very tiring.
4.20 now the advantage
The breakaway bunch includes France’s Sylvain Chavanel, Italian time trial specialist Marco Pinotti, Spain’s Nicolas Castroviejo (the man who replaced Samuel Sanchez), Belgium’s Jurgen Roelandts, Norway’s Alexander Kristoff and Russia’s Denis Menchov and Australia’s Stuart O’Grady.
The lead keeps growing almost six minutes now
With around 195km left to go of the men’s road race, the gap to the front 12 is still around four-and-a-half minutes. These riders have another 70km or so to go until they get on to the Box Hill circuit.
The British riders seem to be making a move.
The peloton is too far away now with just 10 km to go the medals will come from the leading group. There will be no medals for Mark Cavendish or team GB.
Gold – Alexandr Vinokurov – Kazakhstan
Silver – Rigoberto Uran Uran – Columbia
Bronze – Alexander Kristoff – Norway