Olympic Cycling Mountain Bike results: Switzerland’s Nino Schurter finally wins the gold
By Brad Weiss
The final cycling event of the 2016 Rio Olympics came to a close on Sunday, as Nino Schurter took the gold medal in the Men’s Cross-country.
The 2016 Rio Olympics cycling events are now all completed, as the men finished up their competition in the Men’s Cross-country on Sunday. There were 50 racers to start the event, but in the end, two familiar names took the top spots. It was an incredible race, filled with excitement from the start.
In 2012, Jaroslav Kulhavy of the Czech Republic took the gold medal. Incredibly, Kulhavy beat Nino Schurter of Switzerland by only one second. Schurter, the bronze medal winner from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, took the silver, but it was a heart-breaking loss.
Fast forward to the 2016 Rio Olympics, Schurter was looking for revenge on Kulhavy, and he got it. Schurter finally won the gold medal he has been looking for since 2008, beating Kulhavy, who came in second. Schurter won the gold by almost one minute over Kulhavy, who settled for the silver.
Finishing up in third place was Carlos Coloma Nicolas of Spain, who missed out on a silver medal by almost a half a minute. He had an incredible race, and really came on strong to take the bronze medal.
MEDAL RESULT | Men's Mountain Bike Cross-country
One of the biggest stories of the event was Peter Sagan, the five-time Tour de France green jacket winner who was making his debut in the Mountain Bike event. Sagan hung tough for a while during the race, but eventually had to pull up on Lap 6. It was an unceremonious ending for Sagan, but he showed a lot of guts just being in the event.
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Unlike road races, Sagan had to deal with the rough terrain of Mountain Bike. He blew a tire on Lap 1, and had to have it replaced heading into the second lap. Still, he pushed on, and tried to make a race out of it. Eventually, he just did not have the experience to compete for a medal.