Annemiek van Vleuten crossed the line and assumed she’d received biking gold. She hadn’t

Dutch bike owner Annemiek van Vleuten threw her palms up withinside the air, her face a photograph of ecstasy and joy. That’s what you do while you suppose you’ve got received Olympic gold — besides she hadn’t. That honor went to Austria’s Anna Kiesenhofer, who capitalized on her rival’s confusion withinside the Tokyo 2020 Olympic women’s street race on Sunday to steady a surprise win. “When I crossed the road, I concept I had received,” stated silver medalist Van Vleuten. Kiesenhofer gave the overall performance of an entire life to eclipse a discipline of huge names and win the race, completing in only beneathneath 4 hours. The 30-year-vintage Austrian broke farfar from the main institution extra than forty kilometers from the end, keeping her personal on a disturbing 147-kilometer route in the extreme warmth to win Austria’s first biking gold medal given that 1896. Kiesenhofer spent plenty of the relaxation of the race to date in advance of the chasing % that she changed into out of sight of the opposite cyclists. Cyclists race with out earpieces on the Olympics and that performed a element in Van Vleuten’s confusion, consistent with the 38-year-vintage Dutch woman. “This is an example (of what happens) in case you experience an vital race like this with out communication. All World Tour races have communication, and now it is the 3 folks status right here and thinking who has in reality received,” delivered Van Vleuten, relating to teammates Marianne Vos and Anna van der Breggen. “I’m gutted approximately that, of route,” stated Van Vleuten. If she changed into gutted, Van Vleuten changed into additionally thrilled to have come away with a medal after she suffered a horror crash all through the street race on the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. “I’m simply happy with the medal, due to the fact I did now no longer have an Olympic medal. It’s additionally a silver medal with a shine on it, due to the fact I felt fantastic appropriate today,” stated Van Vleuten. “My aim changed into to be at my quality ever stage right here, and I suppose I nailed that. It’s now no longer the end result we had been hoping for, however for me personally, I suppose I did a simply appropriate race.”