Richard Carapaz stormed to victory in the men's Olympic road race as Dan Martin finished in 16th place for Ireland on a testing course.
Carapaz, third in the Tour de France last week, rode clear of Brandon McNulty with six kilometres of the 234km race to the Fuji International Speedway left and held off the chasing pack to deliver only Ecuador’s second Olympic gold in their history.
Wout Van Aert pipped Tour winner Tadej Pogacar to silver as part of a nine-man chasing group who crossed the line 67 seconds later.
Dan Martin finished 16th, 3:38 behind the winner, with Nicolas Roche 75th and Eddie Dunbar 76th.
Speaking afterwards, Dan Martin said: "We came here with the idea of getting a medal and honestly, it's been my best experience in an Irish team since I’ve been racing for Ireland.
"We had the best preparation possible – the staff have been amazing, and we really worked together.
"It was a great team performance and yeah, unfortunately I just didn’t have the legs when it mattered on the climb. It was super-hot there and I just missed a couple of seconds to be in that front selection that was fighting for the medals."
