Russian cyclist records shock victory

Add as a preferred source on Google

Sydney: Russian Vyatcheslav Ekimov overturned the formbook with a shock victory in the 46.8 km Olympic road time trial at Centennial Park on Saturday.

Starting before the chief contenders, the 34-year-old teammate of double Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, set a standard with a time of 57 minutes 40 seconds that world time trial champion Jan Ullrich of Germany failed to beat by eight seconds.

Armstrong, rated to make the race a duel with Ullrich, took bronze, 34 seconds behind Ekimov who gave Russia their first cycling gold since he was in the title-winning foursome in the track team pursuit in 1988 at Seoul.

Ekimov is the first Russian to win an Olympic road gold since 1980 when Sergei Soukhoroutchenkov took the road race and the Soviet Union triumphed in the road team time trial which was replaced in Atlanta by the individual time trial.



(c) Reuters Limited.