The Math Ph.D. Who Just Shocked Olympic Cycling – The Wall Street Journal

Oyama, Japan

The mathematician pedaled away from the bunch, right at the start. It was a flyer, to test her limits, and see how it goes. 

Anna Kiesenhofer wasn’t considered a big threat in Sunday’s Olympic women’s road race. The Austrian cyclist wasn’t considered a threat at all. Her name did not appear on any list of pre-race contenders. 

She was so unthreatening, Kiesenhofer assumed the big guns in the race would let her ride away at the beginning for a bit. 

She assumed correctly. They did.