cycling at the 1972 Summer Olympics The cycling competition at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich consisted of two road cycling events and five track cycling events, all for men only. Medal summary Road cycling Track cycling Participating nations 359 cyclists from 54 nations c ...

, the men's individual road race was held on 7 September. There were 163 starters from 48 nations. The maximum per NOC was four. A total of 76 cyclists finished the race. The event was won by

Hennie Kuiper Hendrikus Andreas "Hennie" Kuiper (born 3 February 1949) is a Dutch former professional road racing cyclist. His career includes a gold medal in the Olympic road race at Munich in 1972, becoming world professional road race champion in 1975, a ...

of the Netherlands, the nation's first victory in the men's individual road race and first medal in the event since 1948.

Clyde Sefton Kevin "Clyde" Sefton (born 20 January 1951) is a former road racing cyclist from Australia, who was a professional rider from 1972 to 1983. He represented his native country at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, where he won the ...

earned Australia's first medal in the event with his silver.

Jaime Huélamo Jaime Huélamo (17 November 1948 – 31 January 2014) was a road racing cyclist from Spain, who was a professional rider from 1973 to 1975. He was born in Cuenca, Spain. He represented his native country at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich ...

of Spain finished third, but was disqualified after failing a drug test; the medal was not reassigned. Italy missed the podium, breaking a four-Games streak of gold and silver medals.

Irish protesters

Seven members of the

National Cycling Association The National Athletic and Cycling Association (NACA or N.A. and C.A.), from 1990 the National Athletic and Cycling Association of Ireland (NACAI or NACA(I)) was a federation of sports clubs in the island of Ireland practising athletics or bicycl ...

(NCA) were arrested for disrupting the event. The

Union Cycliste Internationale The ''Union Cycliste Internationale'' (UCI; ; en, International Cycling Union) is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland. The UCI issues racing ...

(UCI) recognised separate national federations on either side of the Irish political border. The NCA was an

Irish Republican Irish republicanism ( ga, poblachtánachas Éireannach) is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate. The develop ...

all-Ireland body not affiliated to the ICU. Three NCA members delayed the start by distributing leaflets, and the other four joined mid-race to ambush Irish competitor Noel Teggart, causing a minor pile-up.

Background

This was the ninth appearance of the event, previously held in 1896 and then at every Summer Olympics since 1936. It replaced the individual time trial event that had been held from 1912 to 1932 (and which would be reintroduced alongside the road race in 1996).

Freddy Maertens Freddy Maertens (born 13 February 1952) is a Belgian former professional racing cyclist who was twice world road race champion. His career coincided with the best years of another Belgian rider, Eddy Merckx, and supporters and reporters were sp ...

of Belgium was favored; he had finished second to

Régis Ovion Régis Ovion (born 3 March 1949) is a French former road racing cyclist. As an amateur he won the individual world title and the Tour de l'Avenir in 1971 and placed 15th in the Cycling at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's individual road race, r ...

(also racing in Munich) at the 1971 world championships and won 50 races in 1971 and 1972. Cameroon, Jamaica, Malawi, and Togo each made their debut in the men's individual road race; East Germany competed separately for the first time. Great Britain made its ninth appearance in the event, the only nation to have competed in each appearance to date.

Competition format and course

The mass-start race was on a 200 kilometre course. It was a "relatively easy and flat" course.Official Report, vol. 3, p. 211.

Schedule

All times are

Central European Time Central European Time (CET) is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Europe and in a few North African countries. CET i ...

(

UTC+1 UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time *West Africa Time *Western European Summer Time ** B ...

)

Results

The field was relatively tight until lap 6, when a pack of 35 cyclists broke away to form a lead group. Kuiper made his move in the last lap, gaining significant separation from the pack.Sports-reference
/ref> Note:

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cycling At The 1972 Summer Olympics - Men's Individual Road Race Road cycling at the 1972 Summer Olympics Cycling at the Summer Olympics – Men's road race