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Olympic cyclist thought she won gold when a Doc in Maths did

 

Doctorate Degree holder in Mathematics and Austria cyclist Anna Kiesenhofer won the gold medal on Sunday morning in Tokyo.

She did it in style that some of her competitors did not even know she had long crossed the finish line, so when Netherlands’ Annemiek Van Vleuten crossed the finish line, and raised her hands aloft to take in the applause of the crowd, it seemed to be the perfect comeback, she thought she had won.

Five years ago, in Rio, she had looked set to claim the gold medal as she descended alone towards Copacabana beach, but a near-fatal crash meant she had to retire from the race.

And with an Olympic gold medal the only accolade missing from Van Vleuten’s glistening palmarès the emotion was visible when she crossed the line.

However, there was one problem: she hadn’t won the race, Anna Kiesenhofer of Austria had.

Just over a minute before Van Vleuten crossed the line, Kiesenhofer had also had her hands raised as she soaked in the cheering crowd after producing one of the rides of the season.

Kiesenhofer, who holds a doctorate of maths at Cambridge University, attacked during the first km of the 137km race with five other riders.

She left her breakaway competitors with 40km to go, and when the peloton passed the other four riders they forgot Kiesenhofer was still up the road.

Anna Kiesenhofer and Annemiek Van Vleuten

All eyes were on the Dutch, who assembled, perhaps, the strongest squad in any Olympic sport in Tokyo with four riders all capable of winning, but they were hapless to stop the flying Austrian.

“I thought I won, yes,” Van Vleuten said after the race, and the confusion had disappeared.

“At five km to go, Marianne [Vos] comes up to me and she didn’t know anymore. No one knew if everyone was back.

“This shows that such an important race without comms, all World Tour races are with comms. We are all wondering here who won.”

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Van Vleuten’s teammate, Anna van der Breggen, the reigning World Champion said: “The tactics weren’t wrong; we just had not the right info. With our info, we did everything right.”

 

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