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Cycling at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's individual road race

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Men's cycling road race
at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
French team at a drink station
VenueBroadmeadows, Victoria, Melbourne
187.73 km (116.7 mi)
Date7 December 1956
Competitors88 from 28 nations
Winning time5:21:17
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Ercole Baldini
 Italy
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Arnaud Geyre
 France
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Alan Jackson
 Great Britain
← 1952
1960 →

The men's individual road race at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, was held on Friday 7 December 1956. There were 88 participants from 28 nations. Of the 88 starters 44 rode the distance to the end.[1] The event was won by Ercole Baldini of Italy, the nation's first medal in the men's individual road race. Arnaud Geyre took silver, France's first medal since back-to-back golds in 1936 and 1948. Alan Jackson's bronze was Great Britain's first medal in the event since 1896.

French and British officials protested against Baldini's victory, claiming that he was protected from the hot sun by the Olympic film unit van that drove alongside him, but the protest was upheld.[2] The start of the race was delayed fifteen minutes when it was discovered that two 'unauthorised' Irish cyclists, Tom Gerrard and Paudie Fitzgerald were in the starting field.[2] The two were removed and then "joined 200 supporters in passing out Irish nationalist literature."[3]

Each nation could enter up to four cyclists; nations entering at least three cyclists had the scores of their best three finishers used for the team road race event.

Background

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This was the fifth appearance of the event, previously held in 1896 and then at every Summer Olympics since 1936. It replaced the individual time trial event that had been held from 1912 to 1932 (and which would be reintroduced alongside the road race in 1996). Ercole Baldini was a "heavy favorite" after setting an amateur world record in the one-hour ride and winning the 1956 individual pursuit world championship.[3]

Colombia, Ethiopia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela each made their debut in the men's individual road race; East and West Germany competed as the United Team of Germany. Great Britain made its fifth appearance in the event, the only nation to have competed in each appearance to date.

Competition format and course

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The mass-start race was on a course that covered 11 laps of a 17.0665 kilometres circuit, for a total of 187.73 kilometres. The course was "a fairly hilly ride" with "two large climbs that both peaked at 12% grades, the second of which [was] over a full kilometre."[3][4]

Schedule

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All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

The day started mild, but it became "rather warm" during the afternoon.[4]

Date Time Round
Friday, 7 December 1956 10:00 Final

Results

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The race started "rather quiet," with pressure picking up from lap 3 to lap 5. Many riders fell behind in the heat during that stretch. Feeding was allowed in lap 5. There were not many falls during this race, but the most serious happened then, with a bag tangling in Trickey's wheel and resulting in a crash that eliminated him and Mengistou. Baldini separated from the pack in lap 8, with 50 kilometres left, and was not challenged the rest of the way as he only increased his lead. A pack of four riders competed for second through fifth places.[3][4]

Rank Cyclist Nation Time
1st place, gold medalist(s) Ercole Baldini  Italy 5:21:17
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Arnaud Geyre  France 5:23:16
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Alan Jackson  Great Britain 5:23:16
4 Horst Tüller  United Team of Germany 5:23:16
5 Gustav-Adolf Schur  United Team of Germany 5:23:16
6 Arthur Brittain  Great Britain 5:23:40
7 Arnaldo Pambianco  Italy 5:23:40
8 Maurice Moucheraud  France 5:23:40
9 Magdaleno Cano  Mexico 5:23:40
10 Lars Nordwall  Sweden 5:23:40
11 Paul Nyman  Finland 5:23:40
12 Michel Vermeulin  France 5:23:40
13 Ramón Hoyos  Colombia 5:23:40
14 William Holmes  Great Britain 5:23:50
15 Anatoly Cherepovich  Soviet Union 5:23:50
16 Mykola Kolumbet  Soviet Union 5:23:50
17 Karl-Ivar Andersson  Sweden 5:23:50
18 Reinhold Pommer  United Team of Germany 5:24:38
19 Harold Reynolds  Great Britain 5:24:44
20 Roland Ströhm  Sweden 5:24:44
21 Juan Pérez  Chile 5:25:38
22 Erich Hagen  United Team of Germany 5:26:38
23 Norbert Verougstraete  Belgium 5:26:47
24 Gustaaf De Smet  Belgium 5:26:47
25 Guremu Demboba  Ethiopia 5:26:58
26 Veselin Petrović  Yugoslavia 5:26:58
27 René Abadie  France 5:27:28
28 Dino Bruni  Italy 5:27:28
29 Patrick Murphy  Canada 5:27:28
30 Franz Wimmer  Austria 5:27:28
31 Gunnar Göransson  Sweden 5:30:45
32 Viktor Kapitonov  Soviet Union 5:30:45
33 René Deceja  Uruguay 5:31:58
34 Aurelio Cestari  Italy 5:34:20
35 Viktor Vershinin  Soviet Union 5:34:21
36 Mesfen Tesfaye  Ethiopia 5:34:25
37 Kim Ho-soon  South Korea 5:34:37
38 Zehaye Bahta  Ethiopia 5:34:37
39 Pablo Hurtado  Colombia 5:34:49
40 Jaime Villegas  Colombia 5:34:49
41 John O'Sullivan  Australia 5:36:58
42 François Van Den Bosch  Belgium 5:38:16
43 Joe Becker  United States 5:38:16
44 Jim Nevin  Australia 5:47:02
Jim Nestor  Australia DNF
Jack Trickey  Australia DNF
Walter Bortel  Austria DNF
Kurt Schein  Austria DNF
Rudolf Maresch  Austria DNF
François De Wagheneire  Belgium DNF
Fred Markus  Canada DNF
James Davies  Canada DNF
Jorge Luque  Colombia DNF
František Jursa  Czechoslovakia DNF
Jaroslav Cihlář  Czechoslovakia DNF
Jiří Nouza  Czechoslovakia DNF
Jiří Opavský  Czechoslovakia DNF
Palle Lykke  Denmark DNF
Negousse Mengistou  Ethiopia DNF
Tetsuo Osawa  Japan DNF
Im Sang-jo  South Korea DNF
Gaston Dumont  Luxembourg DNF
Francisco Lozano  Mexico DNF
Felipe Liñán  Mexico DNF
Rafael Vaca  Mexico DNF
Muhammad Naqi Mallick  Pakistan DNF
Din Meraj  Pakistan DNF
Saleem Farooqi  Pakistan DNF
Shazada Muhammad Shah-Rukh  Pakistan DNF
Alfred Swift  South Africa DNF
Robert Fowler  South Africa DNF
Jan Hettema  South Africa DNF
Charles Jonker  South Africa DNF
Hylton Mitchell  Trinidad and Tobago DNF
David Rhoads  United States DNF
Erhard Neumann  United States DNF
George Van Meter  United States DNF
Alberto Velázquez  Uruguay DNF
Eduardo Puertollano  Uruguay DNF
Walter Moyano  Uruguay DNF
Arsenio Chirinos  Venezuela DNF
Antonio Montilla  Venezuela DNF
Domingo Rivas  Venezuela DNF
Franco Cacioni  Venezuela DNF
Trần Gia Thu  Vietnam DNF
Nguyễn Hw Thoa  Vietnam DNF
Ngô Thành Liêm  Vietnam DNF
Trung Trung Lê  Vietnam DNF

References

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  1. ^ "Cycling at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games: Men's Road Race, Individual". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
  2. ^ a b Wallechinsky, David (1984). The Complete Book of the Olympics. England: Penguin Books. p. 207. ISBN 0140066322.
  3. ^ a b c d "Road Race, Individual, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
  4. ^ a b c Official Report, p. 415.
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