From Craig Lord in Sydney

Arms aloft and fists clenched, Jan Ullrich free-wheeled the last 300 metres of his 5½ hour ride into history as the first Tour de France winner to have a right to wear the Olympic road race jersey.

There was no doubt that the toil over 14 laps of the 17km course around the streets and lush parklands of Sydney had been gruelling for the German, and that much of the struggle had been endured under a burning sun that left the British contingent overheated and out of the race with a lap and a half to go.

Yet there was reason to believe that the German’s last 10km were more comfortable than they looked, at least in mind if not in body. Certainly there was more to this most professional of races than met the eye, a tiny radio earpiece dictating the pace at which Ullrich would pedal to victory over his Deutsche Telekom team-mates, Alexandre Vinokourov and Andreas Kloeden, and the other 149 riders in the 239km race.

The Kazakhstani, Vinokourov, split the Germans on the winners’ rostrum to take his nation’s first medal of the Games, but the borders of this race had more to do with cash than country, the business of sport in full and fast flow, the voice on the other end of the earpieces of Ullrich, Vinokourov and Kloeden neither German nor representing Germany.

Rudi Pevenage, the Belgian leader of Team Deutsche Telekom, was the man who told the trio to make the break from the peloton just before the half-way mark of the penultimate lap. That was the point at which sprinters had their eye on Erik Zabel, of Germany, and at which the good work done by the British squad pedalling for Max Sciandri would prove to be in vain as the bronze medal-winner of 1996 found himself unable to respond as a group of 13 riders broke away from the pack.

Within the next two minutes, the Telekom team had put a critical stretch of tarmac between themselves and the best of the rest. The top three were decided but it would not be until the riders had glimpsed the beach for the last time before beginning another painful climb up Bronte Road that Ullrich would respond to Pevenage and leave his team-mates trailing as though they were out for a Sunday wheelabout.

Ullrich crossed the line 9sec ahead of Vinokourov, with Kloeden taking the bronze a further 3sec behind. The next-best pack were a full 1min 6sec behind Ullrich's time.

Had the race been fixed so that the main man would win while his team-mates raced in behind him? The riders skirted round the question like wheeling around a cobble on the road, the common message being that the best man had won.

The British seemed to agree. John Tanner, who had done much of the work for Sciandri and finished three places behing the British champion in 38th place, said: “This was a strong-man’s course and the strong man won. He’s so strong, it’s incredible. My job was to look after Max. We were there with one and a half laps to go but it just got harder and harder, faster and faster.”

It was hard for Rob Hayles, too. Having finished fourth in the individual pursuit, fourth in the Madison but scraped through with a bronze medal as a qualification rider in the team pursuit, he had one last chance to shine in the road race. He crashed out on the second lap when the heavy overnight rain was still drying from the road.

Ken Matheson, Britain's head coach, said: "We’ve cleaned him up; he’s a bit battered but it's predominantly cuts and bruises and a damaged ego. We’re looking for an award from him as the unluckiest man of the Games.”

Of the overall British result, he said: “It’s disappointing that we didn’t get in the top ten or even get a medal. That’s the nature of road racing. Tactics and trade teams play a huge role.” The Germans denied that their professional tactics had worked against the “Olympic spirit” - as one American put it - and Matheson seemed to agree. But what would the Englishmen abroad in Athens in 1989 have made of it all?

That was the year that the bronze medal went to Britain’s Edward Battell, but not before a bureaucratic battle: Battell was a servant at the British Embassy in Greece and some expat residents attempted to block his entry on the grounds that if he was not a gentleman, how could he possibly be an amateur.

There were no amateurs in the fight for medals yesterday. Ullrich and company toured the globe together, and prepared as a team for Sydney during the Vuelta of Spain and in Brisbane. After his victory, Ullrich pointed towards the German media who had ridiculed him as the fat boy of cycling in the winter.

Ullrich, who has shed almost two stone in weight since the spring, did not want to discuss how had managed to get in trim for Sydney. He was keener to speak about Lance Armstrong, the Tour winner who was a well-beaten thirteenth in 1min 29sec, and complained that the course had been “extremely tough, undulating and inconsistent”.

The two will meet again in the road time trial on Saturday but neither would make predictions, Ullrich merely saying with a smile: “I’ve got my gold medal, he still has his to get.”