SEOUL, South Korea -- Dutch cyclist Monique Knol used a late sprint Monday to break from a pack and capture the 82-kilometer (50.8-mile) women's road race at the Olympics.
Jutta Niehaus of West Germany edged Laima Zilporite of the Soviet Union for the silver. Forty-five riders were scored with the same time as the winner, 2 hours, 52 seconds.
The flat and wide road course northwest of Seoul in Tong-il Ro provided little challenge to the riders, who stayed tightly packed throughout.
'I would like to see a more demanding course, one that would take something out of the riders lap after lap,' said American rider Bunki Bankaitis-Davis, Boulder, Colo.
The race was marked by tentative attacks with no serious attempts ever forming.
France's Jeannie Longo was a questionable pre-race favorite because of a hairline fracture in her hip suffered during a crash in the team time trial at the world championships in Belgium last month. During practice rides in the days before the race, she was seen being lifted onto and off her bike by her trainers.
From the start, Longo went against her nature and sat at the rear of the closely bunched pack avoiding any chance of contact.
She held that position through four laps of the five-lap race. She allowed her teammates Catherine Marsal, the world junior road champion, and Cecile Odin to chase down any attempts to break away. But there was one break that the women's Tour de France winner could not ignore.
Inga Benedict, Reno, Nev. made a solo attack 6 kilometers from the finish and built a 100-meter gap just before the two slight inclines known as Camel Hill. Longo bolted from the back to chase down the American.
Longo reeled in Benedict and tried to forge ahead. But the pack, as it had all day, remained intact.
Three hundred and fifty meters from the finish, the pack broke into a field sprint. Bankaitis-Davis was open on the right, with Knol on the left. It was a sprinter's race and Knol, a 24-year-old school teacher, crossed the line more than a length ahead of Niehaus and Zilporite.
Benedict finished eighth and Bankaitis-Davis 14th. The third American rider, Sally Zack of North Conway, N.H., placed 16th. Jeannie Longo finished in the pack and was credited with 21st place.
