Attila Valter explains Olympic Games fourth place celebration: "Some foreign journalists may have misunderstood this"

The Olympic Games is one of the few races where minor places are celebrated. Valentin Madouas was over the moon with his silver medal behind Remco Evenepoel but most notably was Attila Valter's celebration for fourth place. It was unclear if the Hungarian rider believed he was actually sprinting for third place, but he has now cleared out the interesting question.

Valter was, all throughout the race, very much under the radar and racing by himself; but that didn't prevent him from coming through in the final kilometers to make it into the front groups. “I was in a good position the whole time and distributed my strength well. I made good decisions from the start, but the last hour was tough," he said in words to Eurosport. "If I look at my average power, it was not an incredibly tough race. But 272 kilometers is a long way.”

Evenepoel took a strong solo win with over a minute of advantage over his rivals. Such a chaotic race and without radios, some riders (such as third place Christophe Laporte) did not know what place they were fighting for. Madouas, right in front of the chasing group, celebrated the second place as if it was a victory. Some speculated that Valter could've believed Madouas was in fact taking the win and instead of fourth, the Visma rider thought he was sprinting for third.

But that was not the case, he assures: “Some foreign journalists may have misunderstood this a little. The joy was because of my performance, the fourth place that I took. I am of course very happy with that.” It is in fact one of the biggest results of his career, without a doubt.

“I saw the two Frenchmen and felt that I still had so much power in the sprint that no one in the group would be able to catch up with me. But the clenched fist and the joy when I crossed the line did not mean that I thought I was third and had won a medal,” he concluded.