Dutch cyclist celebrates as she finishes Olympic road race thinking won gold ...

Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten threw her hands in the air in celebration as she crossed the finish line of the women's Olympic road race, thinking she had managed to secure a gold medal. 

But van Vleuten had not realised Austrian Anna Kiesenhofer had already finished the race a minute and 15 seconds earlier. 

Van Vleuten's elation turned to dejection after she was told she had in fact come second in the race and broke down in tears as she explained the mishap.   

The Dutch rider, who had been a pre-race favourite and set her sights on a gold medal, sprinted away in the closing stages from the chasing bunch to cross the line with a broad smile and fists pumping at the Fuji Speedway. 

She had been unaware of an early break by Kiesenhofer, a mathematician from Austria, who rode clear of the field to record a sensational upset and grab gold.

Riders in the Olympic races do not have the assistance of radio, like there are at professional races, and that makes it difficult to know where riders stand on the road.

The peloton were oblivious to Kiesenhofer's dramatic 41km solo effort which saw the Austrian cross the line first in one of cycling's biggest Olympic shocks.  

'Yes... I thought I had won. I was wrong,' Van Vleuten tearfully told reporters as Dutch media labelled it a major blunder.

'I felt very stupid when I found out. We are talking here about miscommunication. I didn't know what the situation was but neither did the rest.'

Others on the road had also failed to remember that Kiesenhofer was out ahead. Van Vleuten's teammate and defending champion Anna van der Breggen also thought she won. 

So did Britain's Lizzie Deignan, who told the BBC: 'The best person won the bike race here today. Annemiek was clearly the strongest.' Turns out it wasn't so clear. She wasn't the strongest.

'I couldn't believe it,' winner Kiesenhofer said. 'Even when I crossed the line, it was like, "Is it done now?".'

Five years ago, van Vleuten was leading in Rio before a horrific crash on a sharp descent left her with a concussion and three fractures in her lower back.

'I'm gutted,' van Vleuten said. 'With five kilometers to go, [2012 champion] Marianne [Vos] came up to me, none of us knew if everyone was caught back. This is an example of what happens if you ride an important race like this without communication.'

But she insisted she would quickly get over the calamity and might be back in three years.

'My goal today was to be my best self ever and I succeeded. I mean, we can whine about the miscommunication for a long time, but I could have won gold here in this form. I did very well,' Van Vleuten said.

'Yeah, I'm really proud of it. I mean, it's a silver medal, but it does have a bit of a shine to it. And it's also my first medal, isn't it? I do have an Olympic medal. A lot of people would kill for that.

'And yes, some things are out of your control and we will evaluate them. We might blame ourselves for not knowing about Anna Kiesenhofer, but I really can't blame myself for anything else.