Grant Ferguson finished in 17th place in the men’s mountain bike, the final cycling event in Rio.
The 22-year-old rider completed the course in 1:39:10 in what was his first season as an elite rider in the sport.
The race was won by the Swiss rider Nino Schurter, who took the silver in London four years ago, but this time he was able to upgrade to the gold medal in Brazil.
Grant Ferguson started in the fifth row on the Olympic mountain bike start line but worked hard to move through the pack as the race got underway.
The world champion on the road in 2015 Peter Sagan, who chose to ride in the mountain bike event rather than the road race in Rio, was already up into third position as the riders reached the first technical corner, despite starting in last place on the grid.
Ferguson’s efforts to move through the field had paid off by the time he completed the first lap, crossing the line in 16th place; Sagan meanwhile was halted in his progress by an early puncture.
Punctures were soon coming in thick and fast for the whole field, the riders’ only options were to fix them themselves out on the course or ride the rest of the lap to the team’s technical areas, making it incredibly tough to deal with.
As the second lap came to a close it was all change at the top of the race as Nino Schurter of Switzerland and Spain’s Nicolas Coloma brought the hammer down and overtook initial leader Jaroslav Kulhavy of the Czech Republic, while Ferguson moved into 13th place.
Schurter and Kulhavy dropped the Spaniard towards the end of the third lap and two riders headed into the fourth lap looking to be the on course for the gold and silver medals.
As he finished the fourth lap of seven, Ferguson was riding well in 15th position, battling local favourite, Brazil’s Henrique Avancini.
It was still Kulhavy and Schurter out front as they crossed the finish lap with two laps to go, as they extended their lead over the chasing Coloma and France’s Maxime Marotte to 35 seconds.
Ferguson crossed the line in 17th with two laps left to ride, riding alongside Spain’s Jose Hermina Ramos and chasing a group of three riders, just six seconds in front.
Fun last day in at the Olympics cheering on @GrantFerguson1 pic.twitter.com/agxK0IuCBZ
— Elinor Barker (@elinorbarker) August 21, 2016
Schurter attacked early on in lap six and left the defending champion Kulhavy trailing him by 13 seconds; likewise Marotte started to create a gap between himself and Coloma – edging closer to the bronze medal.
Coloma did not let the Frenchman get away however and as they crossed the line with one lap to go, the pair were still wheel to wheel.
At the end of the seven laps of racing, Schurter crossed the finish line a full 50 seconds ahead of Kulhavy, reversing the two riders’ positions from four years ago, while Coloma overpowered Marotte to snatch the bronze.
