Team USA’s Mara Abbott came within moments of the first American gold since 1984 with a tremendous effort in the women’s road race on Sunday before dropping off the podium altogether with less than 150m to go.
A 39-second lead with 10km to go slowly drained and then evaporated completely in the final 30 seconds of the race, with the Netherlands’ Anna van der Breggen pulling ahead of a pack of three to win gold. Abbott finished fourth.
Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten and Abbott met the last 17 kilometers of the women’s road race together.
Van Vleuten pulled away on the descent, but flipped her bike off the road to allow Abbott to make up ground and march her way to gold with 10 km to go.