Anna Kiesenhofer caused one of the biggest upsets in Olympic road racing history on Sunday, taking advantage of a tactical mistake by experienced riders to win the women’s road race title in bizarre circumstances.
The Austrian was involved in the lead group right from the start of the 137km race, before embarking on a sustained period of disciplined solo cycling so brilliantly executed that her pursuers simply forgot she was ahead of them.
After Kiesenhofer – having apparently swapped her Lycra skin suit for an invisibility cloak – collapsed on to the tarmac, simultaneously sobbing and gasping for air as she contemplated her feat, the heavily favoured Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten surged across the finish line convinced she had taken the gold. And she wasn’t alone. Speaking to the BBC immediately after she ended the race in 11th place, Lizzie Deignan reflected on a “weird old day” – only she was still unaware of its most peculiar twist at the climax.
The Briton, who had spent much of the race trapped in the peloton with Van Vleuten, a former world champion, and her compatriot Anna van der Breggen, said: “The best person won here today. Annemiek was clearly the strongest, so, you know, a shout out to her.”
Deignan’s innocent mistake summed up a chaotic afternoon of racing that started in the fierce lunchtime heat of the Tokyo suburbs before winding its way to the finish within sight of Mount Fuji. Japan’s highest peak has been quiet for more than three centuries and on Sunday, the only eruptions were those occurring on the Fuji International Speedway circuit when the enormity of Kiesenhofer’s victory – and the confusion that preceded it – finally registered.
“It feels incredible,” a stunned Kiesenhofer said. “I couldn’t believe it. Even when I crossed the line, it was like, ‘Is it done now? Do I have to continue riding?’ Incredible … I was just trying to get to the line. My legs were completely empty. I have never emptied myself so much in my whole life. I could hardly pedal any more. It felt like there was zero energy in my legs.”
The 30-year-old reigning Austrian time trial champion, who holds a mathematics degree from Cambridge and a PhD from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, has not had a professional contract since 2017 and trains without a coach. In a race in which only five nations had the full complement of four riders, she was Austria’s sole representative.
It was that independent spirit that saw her join Poland’s Anna Plichta and Israel’s Omer Shapiro quickly establish an advantage of more than 10 minutes over the peloton – a gap unheard of in a women’s race over this distance – before the Austrian decided to go it alone on the Kagosaka Pass.
With just over 40km of hard cycling still in front of her, and on a course that included almost 3,000m of climbing, common sense dictated that Kiesenhofer had gone far too soon. As it turned out, she was right to have put her faith in her command of numbers.
As the peloton inexplicably dithered, it became apparent that only a mechanical or cramp could prevent her from becoming the first rider to cross the line first in front of thousands of masked spectators sitting in the shade of Fuji Speedway’s grandstand.
Despite her obvious disappointment, a silver medal was a victory of sorts for Van Vleuten, five years after she suffered a horrific crash while leading at the Rio Games that left her with a concussion and three fractures in her lower back.
“I’m gutted,” said Van Vleuten, who was part of a Dutch squad that included two other world champions – the reigning Olympic champion Van der Breggen, and Marianne Vos. “With five kilometres to go, Marianne came up to me, none of us knew if everyone was caught back. This is an example of what happens if you ride an important race like this without communication.”
Deignan appeared stunned when she realised her mistake. “I don’t know anything about her,” she said of Kiesenhofer. “She’s definitely a surprise winner. There was a huge lack of information. Probably the Dutch dominance before the race worked against me in the end. Nobody committed. In my position as a sole rider, there was nothing I could do and I was surprised by the lack of collaboration.”
“Too many leaders, potentially. It’s almost understandable,” she added. “What do you do in your team meeting when you’ve got four riders who can win the bike race? How do you decide? They’re all incredible riders, all very professional, but they needed to choose one leader probably.”
The confusion will give the wider cycling world plenty to chew over before the individual time-trials next week. But the day belonged to Kiesenhofer, whose gold medal was Austria’s first at a summer Olympics since 2004, and its first in cycling since Adolf Schmal’s victory in the 12-hour race at the first modern Games in 1896.
“It’s just so incredible,” she said. “I have really sacrificed so much for today. I wasn’t expecting to finish it off like that. I sacrificed everything even for a top-15 place and now to get this, for the sacrifices, it’s just such a reward.”