Men's Olympic Road Race Predictions & Odds (Tokyo 2021 - Cycling)
- Written by David Bet
The Tokyo Olympics have arrived and for us cycling fans the action begins immediately. The men's road race is scheduled on Saturday 24th July, starting arond 4am CEST). It's a 234 km hilly course including the iconic Mount Fuji climb. Who will win the gold medal? This post contains our Men's Olympic Road Race betting tips, odds, recommended bets on Winner, Top 3 & Head to Head, promotions & no deposit free bets!
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Men's Olympic Road Race Betting Preview (Tokyo 2021)
The men’s road race course for the Tokyo Olympics is 234 km long and includes almost 5,000 metres of climbing, with with five major climbs on the route between Musashinonomori Park and the Fuji International Speedway.The first climb is Doushi Road with an elevation of 1121m. It features a 5.9km ascent with a 5.7% grade and summits at the 80km mark of the race.
The second one, the Kagasoka Pass, is a shorter climb than Doushi Road and comes at 96.5km.
Mount Fuji comes next. It is a 14.3km long ascent with an average gradient of 6%. From there it’s downhill back to the speedway.
On the final lap, riders will have to conquer the Mikuni Pass which has the steepest climb on the day at 6.8km with a 10.2% average incline. There are portions of the climb that reach 16%.
Any climbers wanting to win the race need a fast pace here to crack rivals and then to attack so they can force a split and keep any heavier, faster sprinting riders out of the picture. From the pass over the top there is still 34km to go.
A descent on roads where it’s hard to chase and it’s back to the Fuji circuit with a lap which starts with a climb - the Kagosaka Pass again - and ends with a long flat finishing straight.
The hilly parcour means that the race could go in the favour of the climbers, but a descent and relatively flat finish means it could also be suited to puncheurs who might be able to chase back on after the final climb.
Men's Olympic Road Race Favourites
Will the riders who competed in the Tour de France carry fatigue, or the three-week race could have set them up perfectly to peak in time for the Olympics?Champs-Elysees winner Wout van Aert stand out as the obvious candidate to earn glory. The Belgian arrives at the Games in blistering form as he recently became he first man at the Tour since 1979 to win a mountain stage, time trial and bunch sprint in the same edition.
Remco Evenepoel is another potential contender for Belgium, while Tiejs Benoot, Mauri Vansevenant and Greg van Avermaet will run as supporting riders.
Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar is one of the favourites for the Gold Medal. He also won this year’s Liege-Baston-Liege, sprinting away from Alaphilippe and Alejandro Valverde, two riders famed for their mean finish.
Pogaçar's fellow countrymen Primoz Roglic abandoned the Tour following a crash and his fitness is unknown. He won 2020’s Liege-Baston-Liege and was runner-up at this year’s La Fleche Wallonne.
British hopes lie with the Yates brothers Adam and Simon since Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart both looked in poor form at the Tour.
France can't count on Julian Alaphillipe as he focuses on defending his title at the Worlds in Flanders at the end of this year. That leaves David Gaudu and Guillaume Martin as huge outsiders for the win.
Italy have Gianni Moscon and Vincenzo Nibali as primary options. The former can climb and sprint well, while the latter is a master on descents and would have won at Rio without the crash in the final kilometers. Alberto Bettiol is a dark horse contender as he can handle this kind of ascents.
Dark horses?
Bauke Mollema (Netherlands) rode brilliantly in this year’s Tour de France, saving his best legs for stage 14. He won that tough stage with well over 2,500 metres of climbing, create the decisive gap on a tricky descent.Alexey Lutsenko also is the type of rider who can perform well on a course like this. The Kazaki rider - 7th in the Tour De France General Classification - is strong on the climbs, powerful on the flat and he can sprint well out of a small group.
Joao Almeida (Portugal) is anorhter possible contender. He was climbing with the best in this year's Giro d'Italia on the longer ascents, and will be fresher than most of his opponents.
Alejandro Valverde (Spain) can't be ruled out despite being a 41-year-old rider.
The Colombians, of course, will enjoy the warm weather and the climbs. Nairo Quintana, Sergio Higuita, Rigoberto Uran and Esteban Chaves are possible surprises.
Marc Hirschi (Switzerland) has not been brilliant at this Tour De France, while Michael Woods (Canada) could be in the mix on the Fuji climb.
Russia have three good riders such as Pavel Sivakov, Aleksander Vlasov and Ilnur Zakarin and could try to escape on the penultimate climb.
Richie Porte (Australia), Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark), Daniel Martin (Ireland), Max Schachmann (Germany), Richard Carapaz (Ecuador), Patrick Konrad (Austria) and Michael Kwiatkowski (Poland) are other riders who can have podium ambitions.
Peter Sagan (Slovakia) will not race at the Olympics because of a knee injury.
Men's Olympic Road Race Profile
Men's Olympic Road Race Predictions (Tokyo 2021)
The section below contains our experts' betting tips on the Men's Olympic Road Race (Winner, Top 3 and Head To Head recommended bets). 
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