London 2012 Cycling: Vinokourov wins Olympic gold and retires

Freshly-crowned Olympic road race champion Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan said he was finally ready to retire from the sport.

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"It's magnificent to end it like this," said Vinokourov, who beat Colombia's Rigoberto Uran to the gold medal after 249.5 km of racing.

"All the big champions like (Laurent) Jalabert and (Richard) Virenque went out on top and I wanted to do the same."

Vinokourov is set to compete in the time trial next week, but "just to give the legs a run-out," he added.

Vinokourov served a two-year ban for blood doping between 2007 and 2009 and completed the Tour de France last week having fought his way back from a broken shin.