Cycling at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's individual road race

Men's road race at the Games of the I Olympiad
The race start in Athens
Venue	Athens–Marathon
Date	April 12
Competitors	7 from 3 nations
Medalists
Aristidis Konstantinidis Greece   August von Gödrich Germany   Edward Battell Great Britain

Cycling at the 1896 Summer Olympics
Road cycling
Road race		men
Track cycling
Time trial		men
Sprint		men
10 km		men
100 km		men
12 hour		men

The men's road race was the only road cycling event on the Cycling at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. The course was 87 kilometres long and the race was held on 12 April.

Results

Place	Athlete	Time
1	Aristidis Konstantinidis (GRE)	3:22:31
2	August von Gödrich (GER)	3:42:18
3	Edward Battell (GBR)	Unknown
4-7	Georgios Aspiotis (GRE)	Unknown
	Miltiades Iatrou (GRE)	Unknown
	Konstantinos Konstantinou (GRE)	Unknown
	Georgios Paraskevopoulos (GRE)	Unknown

The only road race took place on 12 April. It was 87 kilometres long, with contestants cycling to the city of Marathon and back. Seven cyclists entered the event, including the German August von Gödrich, the Briton Edward Battell, and five Greeks.

Konstantinidis led from the start until after the turn at Marathon. His bicycle broke down on the return journey, allowing Battel time to pass him before he was able to get another bicycle and continue. Both Konstantinidis and Battel fell again before finishing, with Battel's fall being severe enough to drop him from first place to third as both Konstantinidis and Gödrich passed him.

References

• Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J.; Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck.  (Digitally available at )
• Mallon, Bill; Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9.  (Excerpt available at )
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.