Mount Fuji (Japan) (AFP)
Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten complained on Sunday about poor communication about the Olympic race, after believing she had crossed the line in the lead when the winner had already passed for more than a minute.
Arriving at the line of the Mount Fuji circuit, the 38-year-old champion raised her arms in triumph.
It took a few seconds for her to understand that the Austrian Anna Kiesenhofer, the only survivor of the morning breakaway, had crossed the line 1 min 15 seconds before her.
"There was a lot of confusion and poor communication today," lamented van Vleuten, visibly very frustrated by the turn of events: "We didn't know the gaps, we heard that there were 45 seconds to 10 km from the finish, "when the breakaway was more than two minutes early, he said.
"In the most important races, we are not allowed to use the usual means of communication", she regretted, in an allusion to the ban on the earpieces on the Olympic event: "C ' is supposed to make the races more interesting, but it makes them more confusing. "
This silver medal is, however, the first Olympic medal for van Vleuten, who had experienced a tragedy in Rio-2016.
She was then in the lead and was heading for the gold medal when she suffered a terrifying fall on the last descent, 10 km from the finish.
Remained unconscious for a while, she had suffered a concussion and fractures of three vertebrae, and the emergency services had even feared for her life.
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