The icing image had been used by Bradley Wiggins shortly after he had become the first Briton to win the Tour de France, and there seemed little doubt that his triumph, and the glorious exploits of his fellow riders Mark Cavendish (pictured above, left) and Chris Froome, had stimulated a wave of interest above and beyond the natural expectations there might have been after the high of the Opening Ceremony.

Crowds four or five deep lined the out and back 250 kilometre course, the longest in Olympic history.

In the end the Olympic gold Cavendish had aspired to ever since he finished a shattered eighth with Wiggins in the Beijing 2008 Games madison event went to Alexander Vinokourov, who served a two year-ban for blood doping at the 2007 Tour de France.

The 38-year-old Kazakhstan rider, who said he would quit cycling after these Games, assured himself of the ideal send-off as he sprinted marginally clear of Colombia's Rigoberto Uran in the final 200 metres before crossing the line with both arms raised in front of packed stands full of disappointed patriots.

Alexandre Vinokourov celebrates as he crosses the finish line ahead of Rigoberto Uran (left) to win the men's cycling road race event at London 2012

"I finished the Tour [de France] a little bit tired, but today's race was unbelievable," said Vinokourov.

"It's an incredible finish to my career."

Both men were timed at 5 hours 45min 57sec, with Alexander Kristoff of Norway eight seconds behind as won the battle for bronze with the rest of the 25-strong leading group.

That group had broken away decisively on the last of nine climbs up the short but steep incline of Box Hill, and with only five riders, the British team – who had controlled the race up to that point – were simply unable to bridge the gap in a chase where the rest of the peloton left them to do the bulk of the work.

For what Cavendish had described as "the dream team" the day before, the event turned into something of a nightmare, although it was far from the case that the wheels had fallen off for British Cycling.

There was calamity, however, for Switzerland's four-time world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara.

A brutal head-on collision with the barriers when he misjudged a turn while leading the race with around 15km remaining effectively cancelled the 2008 Olympic time trial champion out, leaving him with a gashed right arm.

Fabian Cancellara crashes out of the London 2012 men's road race

After getting back on his bike and limping along for a while the effort proved too much, and he finished his day in tears.

Cancellara will now have a scan on his right shoulder, and his hopes of defending the title he won in Beijing on Wednesday (August 1) look dim indeed.

"The guys are all sat there in the tent absolutely spent," said Cavendish.

"We did everything we could.

"The crowd was tremendous the whole way round, but the Aussies just raced negatively.

"The team were incredible.

"They left everything out on the road.

"I am so proud of them.

"We didn't expect any help.

"We rode the race we wanted to ride.

"We couldn't pull the group back on Box Hill.

"Other teams were content that if they didn't win, we wouldn't win.

"We expected it.

"If you want to win, you have to take it to them."

Britain's cyclists Christopher Froome, Mark Cavendish, Ian Stannard, Bradley Wiggins and David Millar pose before the start of London 2012 men's road race cycle event

Britain's David Millar, back in the Olympics after the British Olympic Association were obliged to waive their byelaw banning doping offenders from the Games, took turns with Wiggins, Froome and Ian Stannard in an effort to close the gap enough to launch their world champion, Cavendish for a final flourish down London's answer to the Champs Elysees.

But in vain.

The chasing group finished just over half a minute behind the winner, with André Greipel of Germany leading them over the finish line in 26th place, with Cavendish two places behind him.

All were given a finishing time of 5:46:37.

"We had five-and-a-quarter hours on the front – we just didn't have that little extra bit," said Millar, his face streaked with sweat and mud, and drawn with the efforts he had just made.

"We needed three more riders.

"We rode the race we said we were going to race, but there were strong guys up the road.

"The other teams seemed to be working to smash our race up."

Bradley Wiggins, the first British winner of the Tour De France, rings the largest harmonically tuned bell in the world to signal the start of the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony

Australia's Simon Gerrans, his face also streaked with grime, said a lack of timing data during the race had hampered his team's efforts.

"We didn't get a lot of information as we were going through the race," he said.

"You ended up racing blind."

Wiggins had not exerted himself unduly in ringing the Olympic Bell at the previous evening's Opening Ceremony, but after the labours he endured here today there will be doubts now about his prospects of adding another gold to his Olympic collection in Wednesday's time trial.

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