Four-rider teams, mammoth distances, a lack of race radios and the prize at stake – a gold medal at the foot of the Eiffel Tower – may make this weekend’s Olympic road race the most intense one-day event these riders ever face.
The smaller teams and lack of communications may also make the men’s and women’s races, which will climax in the labyrinthine streets of the Butte Montmartre, on Saturday and Sunday, chaotic and uncontrolled.
