The conventional wisdom is that the teams with the most riders do best in the men's road cycling race. If that were always the case, then Fabian Cancellara should have been at the back, instead of walking away with a bronze medal.
The Swiss rider lost his only teammate before racing even began. Michael Albasini fell during training in Beijing and suffered multiple fractures of his left collarbone.
There wasn't time to name a replacement, so Cancellara started alone. The five riders each that Spain and Italy fielded took control of the race and provided gold and silver for Samuel Sanchez and Davide Rebellin, respectively.
But Cancellara said there was some benefit to being the only Swiss rider at least no one was squabbling over who the team leader was. "I told my small team I would follow the big countries," Cancellara laughed.
"Spain had five big champions, Italy had five big champions. I think I did something special.
" In a road race, it is expected that some riders will end up sacrificing themselves, doing all the hard work so their teammates have a chance of winning. But that choice was not open to him, so he just rode as hard as he could.
He was the only rider to bridge the gap from the peloton to the leading group in the final kilometers of the race, and still had the strength to sprint for the bronze medal. "I had to risk everything at the end, but otherwise I think I wouldn't be third and able to enjoy this medal," he said.
The road race isn't even Cancellara's goal at these Olympics. He is world champion in the time-trial everyone rides alone in that and he'll be hoping for a medal of a different color on Wednesday.
"To ride alone and be third, that shows that I am good, and that things look really positive in the time-trial," he said.
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