# Cycling at the 1984 Summer Olympics – Men's individual road race

The men's individual road race at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, was held on Sunday July 29, 1984. There were 135 participants from 43 nations in the race over 190.20 km, on a course in Mission Viejo, California. The maximum number of cyclists per nation was four. 55 cyclists finished. The event was won by Alexi Grewal of the United States, the nation's first medal in the men's individual road race. All three nations represented on the podium were there for the first time in the event; Canada with Steve Bauer's silver and Norway with Dag Otto Lauritzen's bronze joined the Americans.

## Background

This was the 12th appearance of the event, previously held in 1896 and then at every Summer Olympics since 1936. It replaced the individual time trial event that had been held from 1912 to 1932 (and which would be reintroduced alongside the road race in 1996). The late 1970s and early 1980s had seen a shift in power in the sport from Western Europe to the world's superpowers, with Eastern Europe (particularly Poland) more generally also rising. With the Soviet-led boycott, the host Americans were favored. Davis Phinney was considered "the best sprinter on the US team" but "not a great climber"; the hilly course did not favor him. Alexi Grewal nearly missed being able to compete, testing positive for the stimulant phenylethylamine and being suspended 10 days before the Games; he successfully appealed and was reinstated, on the ground that the test was not able to distinguish between phenylethylamine and albuterol (which Grewal took for asthma).
Bermuda, Belize, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, and Uganda each made their debut in the men's individual road race. Great Britain made its 12th appearance in the event, the only nation to have competed in each appearance to date.

## Competition format and course

The mass-start race was on a 190.2 kilometre course over 12 laps of a circuit in Mission Viejo. The course was hilly.

## Schedule

All times are Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7)
| Date | Time | Round |
| Sunday, 29 July 1984 | 13:00 | Final |

## Results

Grewal and Bauer separated from the lead pack on lap 11. They "never had a large lead" over the next pair, Lauritzen and Sæther, but were always clear of them. Grewal beat Bauer in the final sprint by "less than a wheel."
| Rank | Cyclist | Nation | Time |
| | Alexi Grewal | United States | 4:59:57 |
| | Steve Bauer | Canada | s.t. |
| | Dag Otto Lauritzen | Norway | + 0' 21" |
| 4 | Morten Sæther | Norway | s.t. |
| 5 | Davis Phinney | United States | + 1' 19" |
| 6 | Thurlow Rogers | United States | s.t. |
| 7 | Bojan Ropret | Yugoslavia | s.t. |
| 8 | Néstor Mora | Colombia | s.t. |
| 9 | Ron Kiefel | United States | 1' 43" |
| 10 | Richard Trinkler | Switzerland | s.t. |
| 11 | Raúl Alcalá | Mexico | s.t. |
| 12 | Stefan Maurer | Switzerland | + 3' 37" |
| 13 | Alberto Volpi | Italy | + 4' 10" |
| 14 | Per Christiansson | Sweden | s.t. |
| 15 | Helmut Wechselberger | Austria | s.t. |
| 16 | Enrique Campos | Venezuela | s.t. |
| 17 | Luis Rosendo Ramos | Mexico | + 6' 14" |
| 18 | Brian Fowler | New Zealand | + 6' 48" |
| 19 | Martin Earley | Ireland | s.t. |
| 20 | Atle Kvålsvoll | Norway | s.t. |
| 21 | Fabio Parra | Colombia | s.t. |
| 22 | Thomas Freienstein | West Germany | + 7' 51" |
| 23 | Francisco Antequera | Spain | + 11' 30" |
| 24 | Per Pedersen | Denmark | + 11' 46" |
| 25 | Kari Myyryläinen | Finland | s.t. |
| 26 | Lars Wahlqvist | Sweden | s.t. |
| 27 | Paul Kimmage | Ireland | s.t. |
| 28 | Daniel Amardeilh | France | s.t. |
| 29 | Philippe Bouvatier | France | s.t. |
| 30 | Kjell Nilsson | Sweden | s.t. |
| 31 | Harry Hannus | Finland | s.t. |
| 32 | Stefan Brykt | Sweden | s.t. |
| 33 | Louis Garneau | Canada | + 15' 30" |
| 34 | Kurt Zellhofer | Austria | s.t. |
| 35 | Primož Čerin | Yugoslavia | s.t. |
| 36 | Achim Stadler | West Germany | s.t. |
| 37 | Stephen Cox | New Zealand | s.t. |
| 38 | Patrick Wackström | Finland | s.t. |
| 39 | Gary Thomson | Ireland | s.t. |
| 40 | Kim Eriksen | Denmark | s.t. |
| 41 | Werner Stauff | West Germany | + 18' 04" |
| 42 | Jure Pavlič | Yugoslavia | s.t. |
| 43 | Séamus Downey | Ireland | s.t. |
| 44 | Jean-Paul van Poppel | Netherlands | + 22' 20" |
| 45 | Matsuyoshi Takahashi | Japan | s.t. |
| 46 | Marko Cuderman | Yugoslavia | s.t. |
| 47 | Salvador Rios | Mexico | s.t. |
| 48 | Park Se-ryong | South Korea | s.t. |
| 49 | Johann Traxler | Austria | s.t. |
| 50 | Jeff Leslie | Australia | s.t. |
| 51 | Fernando Correa | Venezuela | s.t. |
| 52 | Carlos Jaramillo | Colombia | s.t. |
| 53 | Arthur Tenn | Jamaica | s.t. |
| 54 | Mustapha Najjari | Morocco | + 22' 30" |
| 55 | Michael Lynch | Australia | + 27' 05" |
| — | Luis Biera | Argentina | DNF |
| — | Gary Trowell | Australia | DNF |
| — | John Watters | Australia | DNF |
| — | Paul Popp | Austria | DNF |
| — | Carlo Bomans | Belgium | DNF |
| — | Ronny Van Sweevelt | Belgium | DNF |
| — | Frank Verleyen | Belgium | DNF |
| — | Joslyn Chavarria | Belize | DNF |
| — | Warren Coye | Belize | DNF |
| — | Lindford Gillitt | Belize | DNF |
| — | Wernell Reneau | Belize | DNF |
| — | John Ford | Bermuda | DNF |
| — | Earl Godfrey | Bermuda | DNF |
| — | Clyde Wilson | Bermuda | DNF |
| — | Alain Ayissi | Cameroon | DNF |
| — | Joseph Kono | Cameroon | DNF |
| — | Dieudonné Ntep | Cameroon | DNF |
| — | Thomas Siani | Cameroon | DNF |
| — | Pierre Harvey | Canada | DNF |
| — | Alain Masson | Canada | DNF |
| — | Craig Merren | Cayman Islands | DNF |
| — | David Dibben | Cayman Islands | DNF |
| — | Alfred Ebanks | Cayman Islands | DNF |
| — | Aldyn Wint | Cayman Islands | DNF |
| — | Manuel Aravena | Chile | DNF |
| — | Roberto Muñoz | Chile | DNF |
| — | Rogelio Arango | Colombia | DNF |
| — | Spyros Agrotis | Cyprus | DNF |
| — | Ole Byriel | Denmark | DNF |
| — | Søren Lilholt | Denmark | DNF |
| — | Harri Hedgren | Finland | DNF |
| — | Claude Carlin | France | DNF |
| — | Denis Pelizzari | France | DNF |
| — | Andreas Kappes | West Germany | DNF |
| — | Mark Bell | Great Britain | DNF |
| — | Neil Martin | Great Britain | DNF |
| — | Peter Sanders | Great Britain | DNF |
| — | Darryl Webster | Great Britain | DNF |
| — | Kanellos Kanellopoulos | Greece | DNF |
| — | Ilias Kelesidis | Greece | DNF |
| — | Randolph Toussaint | Guyana | DNF |
| — | Choy Yiu Chung | Hong Kong | DNF |
| — | Hung Chung Yam | Hong Kong | DNF |
| — | Law Siu On | Hong Kong | DNF |
| — | Leung Hung Tak | Hong Kong | DNF |
| — | Stefano Colagè | Italy | DNF |
| — | Roberto Pagnin | Italy | DNF |
| — | Renato Piccolo | Italy | DNF |
| — | Lorenzo Murdock | Jamaica | DNF |
| — | Kim Cheol-seok | South Korea | DNF |
| — | Lee Jin-ok | South Korea | DNF |
| — | Sin Dae-cheol | South Korea | DNF |
| — | Sirop Arslanian | Lebanon | DNF |
| — | Dyton Chimwaza | Malawi | DNF |
| — | Daniel Kaswanga | Malawi | DNF |
| — | George Nayeja | Malawi | DNF |
| — | Amadu Yusufu | Malawi | DNF |
| — | Jesús Rios | Mexico | DNF |
| — | Mustapha Afandi | Morocco | DNF |
| — | Brahim Ben Bouilla | Morocco | DNF |
| — | Ahmed Rhail | Morocco | DNF |
| — | Hans Daams | Netherlands | DNF |
| — | Twan Poels | Netherlands | DNF |
| — | Nico Verhoeven | Netherlands | DNF |
| — | Roger Sumich | New Zealand | DNF |
| — | Hans Petter Ødegård | Norway | DNF |
| — | Ramón Zavaleta | Peru | DNF |
| — | Ramón Rivera | Puerto Rico | DNF |
| — | Maurizio Casadei | San Marino | DNF |
| — | Hassan Al-Absi | Saudi Arabia | DNF |
| — | Mohammed Al-Shanqiti | Saudi Arabia | DNF |
| — | Abdullah Al-Shaye | Saudi Arabia | DNF |
| — | Ali Al-Ghazawi | Saudi Arabia | DNF |
| — | Manuel Jorge Domínguez | Spain | DNF |
| — | Miguel Indurain | Spain | DNF |
| — | José Salvador Sanchis | Spain | DNF |
| — | Heinz Imboden | Switzerland | DNF |
| — | Benno Wiss | Switzerland | DNF |
| — | Muharud Mukasa | Uganda | DNF |
| — | Ernest Buule | Uganda | DNF |