According to Tanel Kangert, who ended his professional cycling career last year, the status of the Olympic Games among cyclists continues to grow. At the Paris Olympics, an attractive 273-kilometer group race awaits the men’s road public.
Just before the Olympics, the Tour de France takes place, the most important grand tour of the year for professional cyclists, where the Danish Jonas Vingegaard is the reigning champion. Already the 111th Tour de France will start on June 29th from Florence and will end on July 21st in Nice.
Only six days later, already on July 27, the Olympic Games medals will be distributed in Paris in the men’s sprint race and on August 3 in the group race. “The Olympia has also significantly increased its importance among runners,” Kangert, who finished ninth at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, told ERR.
“I am reading here thoughts about Paris next year, about what some professional cyclists will do. In fact, the situation today is such that the world champion and many of the top five men will leave the Tour de France with the very idea of being in their best form for the Olympics.”
“In my opinion, this fact in itself is very significant, considering that in 1992 amateurs still competed at the Olympic Games. Professional pilots were not allowed at all,” recalls Kangert. “In 30 years a complete change has happened: the profiler doesn’t see it as a secondary competition, and I do the same.”
Kangert finished 68th in the group race at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He finished ninth in the group race at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and placed 46th at the 2021 Tokyo Games, which were postponed a year due to coronavirus pandemic.
“I was fortunate enough to go to the Olympics three times and not only participate, but also compete. Each time I went there to compete, not just to participate. This sign of going to the Olympics was never important,” Kangert said.
“There is also a ninth place. Whether it is good or not I don’t know. The first three count in cycling and especially in the Olympics. I can be satisfied with the ninth place, but I think it could have been a little better if the 2020 Olympics at the usual time.”
“That was my biggest goal at the end of my career: Tokyo 2020, which then seamlessly became 2021,” Kangert said. “But still, that’s the way it has been and it can’t be changed.”
2023-12-27 20:19:00
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