Anna Kiesenhofer claimed to have shocked the glory of the road race because Van Vleuten mistaken the silver medal for the gold medal in the Olympic Games

In Kiesenhofer-apparently having replaced her Lycra skin with an invisible cloak-fell on the tarmac, sobbing and gasping as she thought about her feat, and the favored Dutch driver Annemiek van Vleuten crossed the finish line, convinced She has taken gold. She is not alone. In an interview with the BBC immediately after she finished the game in 11th place, Lizzie Deignan recalled a “strange old day”-but she still didn’t realize the strangest turn of the climax.

The Englishman spent most of the game trapped in the big team with former world champion Van Floten and her compatriot Anna Van der Bregen. She said: “The best person today wins here. Annemiek is obviously the strongest, so, you know, yell at her.”

Deignan’s innocent mistake summed up a chaotic afternoon, starting at lunch time in the suburbs of Tokyo, and then winding its way to the end within the sight of Mount Fuji. Japan’s highest peak has been silent for more than three centuries, and the only volcanic eruption occurred on the Fuji International Circuit on Sunday, when Kisenhof’s victory-and the chaos before it-was finally registered.

“It feels incredible,” Kisenhofer said, dumbfounded. “I couldn’t believe it. Even when I crossed the line, it was like,’Is it done now? Do I have to continue riding? Unbelievable… I just want to line up. My legs are completely empty. I have never emptied myself so much in my life. I can hardly step on the pedal anymore. I feel the energy in my legs is zero.”

The 30-year-old defending Austrian time trial champion has a degree in mathematics from the University of Cambridge and a doctorate from the Technological University of Catalonia. Since 2017, he has not signed a professional contract and trained without a coach. In a race where only five countries have four drivers, she is the only representative of Austria.

It was this independent spirit that allowed her to quickly establish a lead of more than 10 minutes with Poland’s Anna Prichta and Israel’s Omar Shapiro-an unprecedented gap in women’s competitions- -Before the Austrians decided to go it alone, Kagosaka Seki.

There are more than 40 kilometers of hard riding in front of her, and on a route that includes nearly 3,000 meters of climbing, common sense shows that Kiesenhofer went too early. Facts have proved that she believes that her mastery of numbers is correct.

When the team trembled inexplicably, it was obvious that only mechanical or cramps could prevent her from becoming the first driver to cross the line in front of thousands of masked spectators sitting in the shade of the Fuji Circuit stand.

Although she was obviously disappointed, but five years later, Van Floten won a silver medal. She had a terrible car accident While leading the Rio Olympics, she suffered a concussion and three fractures in her lower back.

“I’m very sad,” said Van Floten, who is a member of the Dutch team, which includes two other world champions-defending Olympic champion Van der Bregen and Marianne Voss. “There are still five kilometers. Marianne walked up to me. None of us knows if everyone has been captured. This is an example of what happens if you participate in an important game like this without communication. .”

Deignan looked stunned when he realized his mistake. “I don’t know anything about her,” she said of Kissenhof. “She is definitely a surprise winner. There is a lack of information. It may be that the Dutch dominance before the race ended up detrimental to me. No one is committed. As the only rider, there is nothing I can do. I am surprised at the lack of cooperation.”

“There are too many potential leaders. This is almost understandable,” she added. “When you have four riders who can win a bicycle race, what do you do in a team meeting? How do you decide? They are all great riders, all very professional, but they may need to choose a leader.”

This chaos will give the wider cycling world plenty of time to chew before the individual time trial next week. But this day belongs to Kisenhofer. His gold medal is Austria’s first gold medal at the Summer Olympics since 2004, and since Adolf Schmal won the 12-hour race at the first modern Olympics in 1896. The first bicycle race.

“This is incredible,” she said. “For today, I really sacrificed a lot. I didn’t expect it would end like this. Even for the top 15, I sacrificed everything, and now in order to get this, for these sacrifices, this is a kind of return.”