“I thought, Oh my goodness I could actually win this” – Mara Abbott

Mara Abbott (USA) finished fourth in the women’s Olympic road race in Rio yesterday but was agonisingly close to winning gold after leading for the last ten kilometres.

Unfortunately for Abbott, she was caught by a trio of chasers who reeled her in just 150 metres from the finish.

The action really started with about 20 kilometres left when Abbott set the pace at the front of the peloton to catch a lead group. Then, on the long and difficult climb, Abbott joined Anna Van der Breggen (NED), Annamiek Van Vleuten (NED), and Elisa Longo Borghini (ITA) to create a powerful foursome. Van Vleuten picked up the pace which would only be matched by Abbott, and the two of them reached the top of the climb together.

“On a climb like that, it’s a little bit of attrition. It was never an attack that broke the string. It was just one by one people dropping back,” Abbott explained.

The technical descent saw Van Vleuten gain about 30 seconds on Abbott who rode with a bit more caution on the damp downhill portion. The Dutchwoman looked to be in position for gold when she suffered a bad crash in a turn, leaving Abbott to complete the descent alone and power down the long and flat final kilometres to the finish.

“On the descent, I wasn’t comfortable holding her wheel and holding the pace that she was going so I just had to back off and go my own pace,” Abbott said.

It was a long, flat road to the Fort Copacabana finish line and Abbott dug deep to hold her lead over the chasers.

“I saw the 300 metre to go sign and I thought, Oh my goodness I could actually win this,” the American recalled. “And then I looked under my shoulder and they were right there and they passed me. But there was a split second that I thought it.”

With 150 metres left in the race, an exhausted Abbott was overcome by a trio of chasers who set up the final sprint. Van der Breggen won the Olympic gold medal by out-sprinting silver medallist Emma Johansson (SWE) and bronze medallist Longo Borghini. Abbott crossed for a heart-breaking fourth place.

After the race, Abbott focused on how proud she was to ride with her teammates.

“We had a really amazing team here and I think we were all really excited to ride together. I think a lot of credit has to go to Kristin Armstrong. She did a whole team’s work at the beginning of the race. She got herself in a break and helped me stay in good position. She was always there and was an incredible leader to us. Megan and Evie were right there with me the whole time. I admired them and the way they work as a team. I was really humble to be a part of that today.”