Cycling at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's road time trial

Men's Time Trial at the 2004 Summer Olympics (Cycling):

Of the top riders, it soon became clear that Sydney 2000 time trial gold medal winner Russian rider Viatcheslav Ekimov was setting the time to beat. The current world time trial champion, Michael Rogers from Australia, appeared to match Ekimov's times, but faded in the final kilometres. Tyler Hamilton, from the USA, had problems with his radio shortly after the start, and rode the race effectively without radio communication. Hamilton finished strongly claiming the gold medal for the USA, averaging 50.062 km/h to finish the 48 km course in 57:31.74. Ekimov was awarded the silver medal, with a time of 57:50.58 nearly 19 seconds behind Hamilton, with another American, Bobby Julich, in a time of 57:58.19 inching out Michael Rogers (58:01.67) for the bronze medal.

Michael Rich (58:09.46) from Germany finished 37 seconds behind Hamilton for fifth, with Kazakhstan rider Alexander Vinokourov 1:26 behind the leader. The last person to start, the 2000 Olympics road race winner and former world time trial champion Jan Ullrich from Germany, could not match the pace and ended with a time of 59:02.04, one and a half minutes behind Hamilton in seventh position.

Tyler Hamilton's gold medal came into question when he failed a blood doping test. He was initially allowed to keep the medal after a lab mix-up spoiled the backup blood sample. Hamilton subsequently failed another doping test during the following month's Vuelta a España. This time, the backup sample confirmed the offense, and Hamilton was given a two-year ban.

On May 20, 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported that Hamilton returned his gold medal to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency after Hamilton acknowledged to 60 Minutes that he used doping products during his career. The International Olympic Committee responded in August 2012 by stripping Hamilton of his medal.

(DNS/F = Did Not Start/Finish)

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