Brits find pace too hot

No time to stop at the beach as the field flies past

By Paul Cohen, Sydney

Atlanta bronze medallist Max Sciandri was unable to match his performance of four years ago as he wilted in the Sydney heat.

The British cyclist admitted that on a difficult course in sweltering temperatures he ran out of steam when the crunch came and the German Jan Ullrich broke away towards a gold medal.

The race started off strongly and it just got faster and faster and the weather got hotter and hotter

  John Tanner

The plan was for the five man GB team to set Sciandri up for a run at the medals but with a lap-and-a-half to go in the 14-lap, 239.4km race the 20-strong front group split and he was unable to stay the pace.

"I was in the right place and the right position but the legs were not quite there today," said Sciandri. "Ullrich was so strong, it's incredible.

Sciandri finished 35th, more than a minute off Ullrich, while John Tanner, the only other Brit to finish, was a further three places back.

"It was really hard," said Tanner. "The race started off strongly and it just got faster and faster and the weather got hotter and hotter. "It was definitely a strong man's course and Jan is the strongest man but I am quite pleased as it was the first time I have raced against these boys this year."

Woe

For Rob Hayles there was more woe. After being omitted from the team pursuit that took bronze and having two fourth-placed finishes Hayles had his second crash of the Games in the second lap, sustaining cuts and bruises and being forced out of the race.

Head coach Ken Matheson was first to sympathise.

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Ullrich was in unstoppable form for the Brits and every other rider

"He is a bit battered but it was predominantly cuts and bruises and a slightly damaged ego but he has had that for two weeks," he said.

"We are looking for an award for the unluckiest man in the Games." With Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan second and Andreas Kloden of Germany third it was a medal clean sweep for the trade team Deutsche Telekom.

Matheson said it was not a great surprise even though the Olympics is about nations not trade teams competing.

"It is not necessarily against the sprit because it is hard for people who race and train together day-in, day-out to suddenly switch off and race each other," he said.