updated 12:05 p.m. ET Aug. 30, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - Julien Absalon spent the last three months studying a tape he’d made of the Olympic mountain bike course, analyzing every twist and turn in search of an edge.

The Frenchman left the course with more pictures Saturday — in these, he was holding a gold medal.

Absalon, a 24-year-old former junior world champion, won the final cycling event of the Athens Games, finishing the rugged 26.9 miles in 2 hours, 15 minutes, 2 seconds.

“My preparation was very tough,” Absalon said. “I’ve dreamed of this moment a hundred times before. Now it’s true. It’s for real.”

Slide show   Emotional Moments: Aug. 29 Trouble mars the marathon but the Olympic spirit prevails.

Jose Antonio Hermida of Spain finished one minute back and won silver; the Netherlands’ Bart Brentjens, the world’s No. 1 rider and 1996 Olympic champion, took the bronze. Brentjens was only one second behind Absalon after three laps, yet finished 2:03 back.

“In the end, the tank just doesn’t stay full,” Brentjens said.

Todd Wells of Durango, Colo. finished 19th, matching the best-ever Olympic finish by an American men’s mountain biker. Wells’ time was 2:24:37, or 9:35 behind Absalon, who entered the race fourth in the International Cycling Union’s world rankings.

“He’s always right up there,” Wells said. “It’s not a surprise that he won, not by any means.”

Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski of Boulder, Colo. placed 21st; he, like Wells, was making his Olympic debut. Horgan-Kobelski outsprinted Czech rider Radim Korinek to the finish line and finished in 2:25:28. Both Americans were slowed by a crash on the starting lap, and couldn’t catch the lead pack.

“This is the Olympics, and I wasn’t going to leave anything out there,” Horgan-Kobelski said. “And I did that. You can’t help but be satisfied when you’ve given it everything you can.”

It was the final cycling event of the Athens Games. Australia, with 10 medals, dominated the overall standings; Germany, with six medals, finished second; the United States won three medals, all in the road time trials on Aug. 18.

Weather again played a significant factor, as it has in virtually every road and mountain cycling event at the Athens Games. Temperatures reached 90 at the Mount Parnitha course, and the bright sunshine took a toll.

With two laps remaining, Absalon’s French teammate, 2000 Olympic champion Miguel Martinez, dropped out because of dehydration and cramps. And as her husband passed by one lap later, Emilie Absalon collapsed in the sun and remained down on the gravel for several minutes.

Her husband, though, remained cool all day.

He spent much of the first half of the race in a tight battle at the front, with a half-dozen riders separated by a few seconds. Midway through the fifth lap of the seven-lap spin around the course, Absalon took off and no one could stay with him.

“I accelerated and that was working,” Absalon said. “So I pursued on the same tempo.”

Absalon was among the favorites, especially after winning the Olympic preview event at Mount Parnitha in May. Belgian world champion Filip Meirhaeghe — a silver medalist at Sydney — pulled out of the field last month after testing positive for EPO, which increases endurance by pumping more oxygen to red blood cells.

The Olympic race completed a long road for Wells, who quit his job as a project manager for IBM in 2001 — abandoning six-figure earning potential and instead opting to make his living riding in races where a typical first prize is about $3,000.

“You always want to do better,” Wells said. “But today, that was all I had.”

Mountain Biking - Men's (medals: Aug. 28th) Medal Athlete Country Result Gold Julien Absalon France 2:15.02 Silver Jose Antonio Hermida Spain 2:16:02 Bronze Bart Brentjens Netherlands 2:17:05 NBCO: Schedules, preliminary result and complete final results

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