[imagesource: Twitter / @faustocoppi60]

Winning a silver medal at an Olympics is no mean feat.

However, thinking you’ve won a gold medal, only to find out that you actually placed second, is definitely deflating.

That’s what happened to Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten, who raised her arms triumphantly as she coasted over the finish line of the women’s Olympic cycling road race.

Austria’s Anna Kiesenhofer took gold in yesterday’s 137-kilometre race to the Fuji International Speedway, having spent the last 40 kilometres out in front of the field.

Sky Sports below:

A combination of no race radio and small squads – only five nations had the full complement of four riders – proved a recipe for chaos behind her and resulted in Dutch rider Van Vleuten’s confusion when she crossed the line 75 seconds after Kiesenhofer…

Elisa Longo Borghini insisted she knew she had taken bronze, but van Vleuten – who suffered three cracks in her spine in a horror crash at the Rio Games in 2016 – raised her arms in celebration as she crossed the line.

“I didn’t know,” the 38-year-old said afterwards. “I was wrong.”

Here’s the moment van Vleuten crossed the line, followed by her emotional celebration.

At around 25 seconds, she is told that she actually won silver:

Fair play – she handled it far better than most would.

Kiesenhofer really was a surprise victor, winning Austria’s first gold at a summer Olympics since 2004. It’s also Austria’s first cycling gold medal since Adolf Schmal’s at the first modern Games in 1896.

Let’s take a moment to enjoy her elation at making history:

[source:skysports]