2012 Olympics

July 29, 2012

Italy’s Guderzo Takes Women’s Olympic Point d’Appui

Tatiana Guderzo

Tatiana Guderzo competing in the London 2012 Women’s Olympic Time Trial.
Photo by David Iliff (License: CC-BY-SA 3.0.)

Tatiana Guderzo, representing Italy, finished on the fulcrum of the 2012 Women’s Olympic Road Race to win the Point d’Appui and take home the Hafnium Medal.

Guderzo finished 32 seconds behind the gold medal winner, Marianne Vos of the Netherlands, and 1 minute and 25 seconds ahead of the final rider to be given a time, Emma Pooley of Great Britain, who finished 1 minute and 57 seconds adrift. Nineteen riders finished the outside the time limit. Another seven riders did not finish the race.

Guderzo has ridden to some acclaim in her native Italy, winning the Italian National Time Trial Championships in 2005 and 2008 as well as finishing second in the Italian National Road Race Championships in 2008. In 2009, she also was the International Cycling Union’s world champion for road race.

UPDATE: She finished 21st of 24 riders in the Women’s 2012 Olympic Time Trial.

July 28, 2012

Veikkanen Wins Men’s Olympic Point d’Appui

Jussi Veikkanen

Jussi Veikkanen in his national championship jersey
Photo by YellowMonkey/Binguyen

Jussi Veikkanen of Finland took home the Hafnium Medal at the 2012 Olympiad in London, after finishing as the Point d’Appui in the men’s road race. Veikkanen finished with a large group of riders who came in 40 seconds adrift of the winner, Alexandr Vinokurov of Kazakhstan.

Seventeen riders did not finish the race, leaving 127 to come home. Veikkanen finished at 64th, some 8 minutes and 39 seconds ahead of the Lanterne Rouge, Soufiane Haddi of Morocco. Fabian Cancellara, who crashed with about 10 kilometers left in the race, limped home to finish with the time nearest the median time of the race.

Veikkanen was the National Road Race Champion of Finland in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010. During the 2012 season, he has ridden for FDJ-BigMat. Outside of Finland, he has done little to distinguish his career.