Sam I Am

With an All-Star cast of teammates that featured the current Tour de France champion, Carlos Sastre, the current Giro d'Italia and 2007 Tour de France champion, Alberto Contador, the current Tour de France Points Classification champion and former three time World Champion, Oscar Friere, and the current Spanish National Road champion, Alejandro Valverde, Samuel Sanchez was the most unlikely candidate to claim Spain's first Olympic gold medal in the road race.

But it was 30-year old Sanchez who would ultimately claim the grand prize in a race that could have passed for a reality television show, Survivor: China.

The Spaniard bested Davide Rebellin (Italy) and the one-man Swiss team, Fabian Cancellara in a finale that saw only a select group of five contest the sprint for medals.

"I can't quite believe I've won the gold medal," ... "My biggest fear was whether we'd be able to control the race as a team, and in such humid, and tremendous heat. But we raced to perfection" said an emotional Sanchez.


In fact, if not for the improbable story of Sanchez's victory, the weather surely would have captured the headlines as a majority of the field lagged and/or dropped from the 90 degree temperatures and the 90% humidity.

American cyclist Jason McCartney, who did not finish, described the conditions to ESPN.com's Jim Caple as this, "It was what was to be expected. It was hot and humid. It was a little like Iowa. … You can see in Iowa, though."

Americans best placed rider was Levi Leipheimer who finished 11th.

Results:
Gold - Samuel Sánchez (Spain)
Silver - Davide Rebellin (Italy)
Bronze - Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland)

More:
Reuters - Sanchez lauds Spain's sport success
New York Daily News - Spain's Samuel Sanchez survives to win brutal Olympic road race
ESPN.com - This road course even too much for some of cycling's toughest riders

Photos: Reuters (top); Jamie Squire/Getty Images (cooling station) - bottom.