# Cycling at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's individual road race

The men's individual road race was a road bicycle racing event held as part of the Cycling at the 1968 Summer Olympics programme. 144 cyclists from 44 nations took part. The maximum number of cyclists per nation was four. It was held on 23 October 1968. The course, just short of 25 kilometres, was covered 8 times for a total distance of 196.2 kilometres. The event was won by Pierfranco Vianelli of Italy, the nation's second consecutive victory in the men's individual road race (putting Italy over France in most gold medals, three to two). It was the fourth consecutive Games that an Italian cyclist finished first or second. Leif Mortensen's silver was Denmark's second consecutive silver medal in the event. Gösta Pettersson earned Sweden's first medal in the event with his bronze.

## Background

This was the eighth 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). There "was no heavy favorite as the last three World Championships had seen nine different riders on the podium."
Barbados, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Lebanon, and Madagascar each made their debut in the men's individual road race; West Germany competed separately for the first time. Great Britain made its eighth 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 course that covered eight laps of a 24.525 kilometres circuit, for a total of 196.2 kilometres. It was a "quite hilly" course.

## Schedule

All times are Central Standard Time (UTC-6)
| Date | Time | Round |
| Wednesday, 23 October 1968 | 9:00 | Final |

## Results

| Rank | Cyclist | Nation | Time |
| | Pierfranco Vianelli | Italy | 4:41:25 |
| | Leif Mortensen | Denmark | 4:42:49 |
| | Gösta Pettersson | Sweden | 4:43:15 |
| 4 | Stéphan Abrahamian | France | 4:43:36 |
| 5 | René Pijnen | Netherlands | 4:43:36 |
| 6 | Jean-Pierre Monseré | Belgium | 4:43:51 |
| 7 | Tomas Pettersson | Sweden | 4:43:58 |
| 8 | Giovanni Bramucci | Italy | 4:43:58 |
| 9 | Martín Rodríguez | Colombia | 4:43:58 |
| 10 | Marian Kegel | Poland | 4:44:00 |
| 11 | Jan Krekels | Netherlands | 4:44:09 |
| 12 | Burkhard Ebert | West Germany | 4:44:10 |
| 13 | Thorleif Andresen | Norway | 4:44:10 |
| 14 | Tore Milsett | Norway | 4:44:12 |
| 15 | Álvaro Pachón | Colombia | 4:44:13 |
| 16 | José Gómez | Spain | 4:44:13 |
| 17 | Valery Yardy | Soviet Union | 4:44:15 |
| 18 | Roger De Vlaeminck | Belgium | 4:44:24 |
| 19 | André Dierickx | Belgium | 4:45:32 |
| 20 | Alain Vasseur | France | 4:45:36 |
| 21 | Imre Géra | Hungary | 4:45:57 |
| 22 | Saturnino Rustrián | Guatemala | 4:46:13 |
| 23 | Jan Smolík | Czechoslovakia | 4:46:30 |
| 24 | Harrie Jansen | Netherlands | 4:46:30 |
| 25 | Cvitko Bilić | Yugoslavia | 4:46:31 |
| 26 | Ole Højlund Pedersen | Denmark | 4:46:31 |
| 27 | Agustín Juárez | Mexico | 4:46:32 |
| 28 | Luis Zubero | Spain | 4:46:34 |
| 29 | Jørgen Emil Hansen | Denmark | 4:46:34 |
| 30 | Pedro Sánchez | Colombia | 4:46:37 |
| 31 | Flavio Martini | Italy | 4:47:56 |
| 32 | Yury Dmitriyev | Soviet Union | 4:47:57 |
| 33 | Daniel Ducreux | France | 4:47:57 |
| 34 | Dave Rollinson | Great Britain | 4:47:58 |
| 35 | Erik Pettersson | Sweden | 4:47:58 |
| 36 | Heriberto Díaz | Mexico | 4:47:59 |
| 37 | Raimo Honkanen | Finland | 4:47:59 |
| 38 | Svend Erik Bjerg | Denmark | 4:48:03 |
| 39 | Rudi Valenčič | Yugoslavia | 4:48:03 |
| 40 | Roberto Breppe | Argentina | 4:48:07 |
| 41 | Ferenc Keserű | Hungary | 4:50:30 |
| 42 | Miguel Lasa | Spain | 4:51:05 |
| 43 | Jesús Sarabia | Mexico | 4:51:05 |
| 44 | John Howard | United States | 4:52:45 |
| 45 | Jürgen Tschan | West Germany | 4:52:50 |
| 46 | Mauno Uusivirta | Finland | 4:52:50 |
| 47 | Jan Erik Gustavsen | Norway | 4:54:41 |
| 48 | Evaristo Oliva | Guatemala | 4:57:07 |
| 49 | Jorge Inés | Guatemala | 4:57:07 |
| 50 | Brian Jolly | Great Britain | 4:57:42 |
| 51 | Curt Söderlund | Sweden | 5:01:12 |
| 52 | Des Thomson | New Zealand | 5:02:33 |
| 53 | Tekeste Woldu | Ethiopia | 5:05:12 |
| 54 | Roger Gilson | Luxembourg | 5:05:12 |
| 55 | Marcel Roy | Canada | 5:05:13 |
| 56 | Ørnulf Andresen | Norway | 5:05:17 |
| 57 | Ole Wackström | Finland | 5:05:18 |
| 58 | András Takács | Hungary | 5:05:21 |
| 59 | Kazimierz Jasiński | Poland | 5:08:25 |
| 60 | Gerard Lettoli | San Marino | 5:10:22 |
| 61 | Enzo Frisoni | San Marino | 5:12:46 |
| 62 | Zygmunt Hanusik | Poland | 5:20:59 |
| 63 | Miguel Ángel Sánchez | Costa Rica | 5:20:59 |
| 64 | Joe Jones | Canada | 5:30:13 |
| — | Juan Alves | Argentina | DNF |
| — | Héctor Cassina | Argentina | DNF |
| — | Gerardo Cavallieri | Argentina | DNF |
| — | Ronald Jonker | Australia | DNF |
| — | Peter McDermott | Australia | DNF |
| — | Kevin Morgan | Australia | DNF |
| — | Donald Wilson | Australia | DNF |
| — | Colin Forde | Barbados | DNF |
| — | Kensley Reece | Barbados | DNF |
| — | Richard Roett | Barbados | DNF |
| — | Michael Stoute | Barbados | DNF |
| — | Jozef Schoeters | Belgium | DNF |
| — | Jules Béland | Canada | DNF |
| — | Yves Landry | Canada | DNF |
| — | Jean Barnabé | Congo-Kinshasa | DNF |
| — | Constantin Kabemba | Congo-Kinshasa | DNF |
| — | Samuel Kibamba | Congo-Kinshasa | DNF |
| — | Ignace Mandjambi | Congo-Kinshasa | DNF |
| — | Miguel Samacá | Colombia | DNF |
| — | José Sánchez | Costa Rica | DNF |
| — | Humberto Solano | Costa Rica | DNF |
| — | José Manuel Soto | Costa Rica | DNF |
| — | Sergio Martínez | Cuba | DNF |
| — | Roberto Menéndez | Cuba | DNF |
| — | Ulises Váldez | Cuba | DNF |
| — | Raúl Marcelo Vázquez | Cuba | DNF |
| — | Noé Medina | Ecuador | DNF |
| — | Victor Morales | Ecuador | DNF |
| — | Arnulfo Pozo | Ecuador | DNF |
| — | Hipólito Pozo | Ecuador | DNF |
| — | Mauricio Bolaños | El Salvador | DNF |
| — | Francisco Funes | El Salvador | DNF |
| — | David Miranda | El Salvador | DNF |
| — | Juan Molina | El Salvador | DNF |
| — | Agustín Tamames | Spain | DNF |
| — | Yemane Negassi | Ethiopia | DNF |
| — | Mehari Okubamicael | Ethiopia | DNF |
| — | Mikael Saglimbeni | Ethiopia | DNF |
| — | Raimo Suikkanen | Finland | DNF |
| — | Jean-Pierre Paranteau | France | DNF |
| — | Ortwin Czarnowski | West Germany | DNF |
| — | Dieter Koslar | West Germany | DNF |
| — | Billy Bilsland | Great Britain | DNF |
| — | Les West | Great Britain | DNF |
| — | Francisco Cuque | Guatemala | DNF |
| — | Tibor Magyar | Hungary | DNF |
| — | Peter Doyle | Ireland | DNF |
| — | Morris Foster | Ireland | DNF |
| — | Liam Horner | Ireland | DNF |
| — | George Artin | Iraq | DNF |
| — | Tino Conti | Italy | DNF |
| — | Gwon Jung-hyeon | South Korea | DNF |
| — | Tarek Abou Al Dahab | Lebanon | DNF |
| — | Solo Razafinarivo | Madagascar | DNF |
| — | Ng Joo Pong | Malaysia | DNF |
| — | Johari Ramli | Malaysia | DNF |
| — | Gabriel Cuéllar | Mexico | DNF |
| — | Joop Zoetemelk | Netherlands | DNF |
| — | Bryce Beeston | New Zealand | DNF |
| — | John Dean | New Zealand | DNF |
| — | Richie Thomson | New Zealand | DNF |
| — | Zenon Czechowski | Poland | DNF |
| — | Emil Rusu | Romania | DNF |
| — | Bruno Hubschmid | Switzerland | DNF |
| — | Petr Hladík | Czechoslovakia | DNF |
| — | Somchai Chantarasamrit | Thailand | DNF |
| — | Suriyong Hemint | Thailand | DNF |
| — | Somkuan Seehapant | Thailand | DNF |
| — | Chainarong Sophonpong | Thailand | DNF |
| — | Deng Chueng-hwai | Taiwan | DNF |
| — | Liu Cheng-tao | Taiwan | DNF |
| — | Shue Ming-shu | Taiwan | DNF |
| — | Vladislav Nelyubin | Soviet Union | DNF |
| — | Anatoliy Starkov | Soviet Union | DNF |
| — | Daniel Butler | United States | DNF |
| — | David Chauner | United States | DNF |
| — | Wes Wessberg | United States | DNF |
| — | Bùi Văn Hoàng | Vietnam | DNF |
| — | Trương Kim Hùng | Vietnam | DNF |
| — | Tanasije Kuvalja | Yugoslavia | DNF |