Review: French pain is Australian gain

ATHENS, Aug 30 (Reuters) -- Ever since Frenchman Paul Masson trundled across the finish line on a clunky steel-framed bike to win his third cycling gold of the 1896 Games, France have dominated the sport at the Olympics.

But in Athens the French cycling team has had one of its worst Games ever and a new nation has emerged as the team to beat -- Australia.

The Aussies won a quarter of all the medals on offer at the Olympic velodrome, nine out of 36, and five of them were gold.

Add to that the gold won by Sara Carrigan in the women's road race, and the team from Down Under -- dogged by doping allegations and in-fighting in the run-up to the Games -- have had a phenomenal Olympics.

Their monster medal haul allowed them to leapfrog the United States and Italy to become the third most successful nation in Olympic track cycling history with 38 medals. Only Britain and France have won more.

On the road, France are still top with 18 medals but the Italians now have 17 following Paolo Bettini's victory in the men's road race on the opening day of the Games.

The French won just one bronze and a silver from 17 races on road, track and mountain before finally striking gold on the last day of competition thanks to Julien Absalon in the men's mountain biking.

It is a far cry from Sydney, when Florian Rousseau, Felicia Ballanger, Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli and Miguel Martinez fired the French to five golds, a silver and a bronze.

"The years ahead look very difficult," said Patrick Clauzaud, head of the French cycling team.

"You can't replace riders like Rousseau or Ballanger easily and in the next couple of years we'll be forced to rely on youth. We're looking towards 2008 or even 2012."

SUSPICIOUS MINDS

Australia's success will inevitably raise a few eyebrows in the light of doping allegations which have plagued them for months, but the riders are hoping their victories will draw a line under all that.

"We've been tested more than probably any sport in the lead-up (to the Games) and we've been cleared of everything," bronze medallist Shane Kelly said. "If there's still doubt then what can we do?

The British, Germans and Spanish were the only teams to mount any sort of a challenge to the Australians, taking four golds apiece on the track.

Judith Arndt also gave Germany a silver in the women's road race but made a bigger impression by giving the German Cycling Federation a one-fingered salute as she crossed the finish line -- part of a long-standing feud over selection policy.

Lori-Ann Muenzer provided one of the performances of the competition by becoming the first Canadian ever to win an Olympic cycling gold medal at the age of 38.

Flying Dutchwoman Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel capped her colourful career by winning the road time trial to claim an unprecedented fourth Olympic cycling gold.

"I'll have a holiday now," she said, adding that she wanted to start a family. "I'll go to the beach and eat a lot of ice cream. After one year I'll be a big mama."

The Americans enjoyed the road, despite the absence of six-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. They took gold and bronze in the men's time trial and silver in the women's.

The Olympic cycling programme ended with the mountain biking, which has only featured at the Games since 1996 but proved its appeal by drawing big crowds to the hot and dusty dirt tracks of Mount Parnitha.

While Absalon won the men's race, Gunn-Rita Dahle gave Norway their first Olympic cycling gold medal in 32 years by winning the women's.

The Games finished on a slightly sour note for cycling.

Just when it seemed they were drawing to a close without a single positive dope test in the sport, it emerged that Colombia's Maria Luisa Calle Williams had failed a test for a banned stimulant and had bee stripped of her gold medal.

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