All the hard work and perseverance paid off for Spanish cyclist Samuel Sanchez as he won the men's road race gold on the opening day of the Beijing Olympics on Saturday, August 9. He completed the men’s road race event in six hours, 23 minutes and 49 seconds. The silver medal went to Italy’s Davide Rebellin and bronze to Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara.   

During the first 40 kilometres, however, all were surprised to see Patricio Almonacid of Chile and Horacio Gallardo of Bolivia in the lead. But the two still posed little threat to biggies like Samuel Sanchez of Spain and Paolo Bettini of Italy, who easily took over the rest of the lot in the race later.