The half smiles on the victory podium failed to disguise the hurt Wong Kam-po was feeling inside. Call it what you want - deliberate intervention, team tactics or just pure unfair rivalry - Hong Kong's finest rider found out what friends are really for during yesterday's Games men's 169.4-km road race.
Observers called it a 'Central Asian Alliance' - three teams from the former Soviet Union co-operating to prevent a possible Hong Kong victory as Wong's title was prised from him in the cruellest fashion at the Geumjeong Sports Park on the outskirts of Pusan.
In the end, Uzbekistan's Sergey Krushevskiy crossed the finish line ahead of Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov with Wong limping home in third place in a result the Hong Kong camp called a 'hollow victory'. Wong was a sitting duck who had no one to help him after teammate Wong Ngai-ching failed to keep up the pace and dropped back, finishing 14th in the end.
'The three teams [Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan] co-operated with each other to make sure we didn't win. It was three riders against one,' lamented Hong Kong coach Shen Jinkang.
'Ah-Po's energy was gone in the end after fighting countless battles against the three riders when it was clear the four leading riders were going to fight for the medals. The three teams all speak the same language.
'Ah-Po had it tough out there. He's an incredible rider because all the odds were stacked against him and yet he still managed to come away with a bronze medal. He just proved yet again how good he is. I just wish the race had been a race between individual riders with no team support.'