On the double, Evenepoel survives late scare for gold

The beautiful piece of cycling art that Remco Evenepoel was creating nearly fell apart outside the Louvre.

But the Belgian cycling ace survived the panic of his puncture 4km from the finish to make history on Saturday in Paris when he won the Olympic road race.

He is the first rider to win the two men’s road events at an Olympics, after dominating the sodden time trial, also through the middle of the city.

Despite the frenzied bike change, the 24-year-old Belgian still had time to celebrate his triumph at the Trocadero finish.

He stopped at the line, raised his arms in the air with his bike in front of him, and then made a “slam down the phone” gesture with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Dutch great Leontien van Moorsel (nee Zijlaard) is the only woman so far to achieve the feat at the Sydney Olympics.

Australian Grace Brown, who won the women’s Paris time trial, will be a medal chance on Sunday in their road race.

Evenepoel relentlessly attacking over three climbs of Montmartre and eventually broke clear, beating French rider Valentin Madouas by one minute 11 seconds.

Christophe Laporte also won bronze for France, winning a reduced bunch sprint five seconds after his compatriot.

They are the first French medals in the men’s Olympic road race for 68 years.

Michael Matthews was the first Australian, finishing 15th at 2:13.

Evenepoel looked home when he suddenly stopped in front of the Louvre, got off his bike and screamed to his team for the spare bike.

He only lost a few seconds with the bike change.

“I feel really sick after the effort, especially the stressful moment 4km to go,” Evenepoel said.

“I think the car wasn’t ready for that moment… in the end, I had enough time.”

Speaking of his finish line celebration, he added: “I knew what was in the background (at the finish), so that’s why I wanted to do that, I think it’s going to be a great picture.”

The win capped a spectacular few weeks for Evenepoel that began with his third-place finish in the Tour de France.

The early breakaway of five riders formed quickly Saturday after the neutralized start from the Trocadéro.

With no real threats among them, the peloton was content allowing the break to build a sizeable gap of more than 14 minutes as the riders headed into the French countryside for the 273km race.

They passed the Palace of Versailles, where the Olympic equestrian competitions are taking place, and the National Velodrome of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, before starting to knock off the 21 punchy climbs dotting the 273km route.

The narrow roads eventually turned back toward the French capital, and pressure mounted to bring back the break.

It was the Dutch, Danish and Belgian teams that took leadership of the peloton on the drive back to Paris, with no race radios complicating tactics in the Olympic road race.

The field came together about 70km from the finish and a succession of attacks ramped up the tempo.

The Montmartre climbs proved the key to the race, with Evenepoel eventually cracking his rivals and powering up to the finish.

– with AAP