By DAVE SKRETTA AP Sports Writer MISHIMA, Japan (AP) â The soon-to-be Olympic champion was in what cyclists derisively call âthe pain cave,â empty lungs searing and legs feeling like dead weight. The climb he was on seemed interminable, the evil gradient sending him straight into the sky. Hardly the time for Richard Carapaz to look fondly upon a near-naked man running beside him on the road. Except ... did the stoic rider from Ecuador actually crack a smile? Indeed, he did. That same stunt that overzealous fans pull in the Alps and Pyrenees during the Tour de France, where it might annoy Carapaz to no end, was actually welcomed by him in the Olympic road race. That's because the draconian measures taken by the organizers of the Tokyo Games to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have also prevented fans from the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see most of the world's best athletes perform on their own soil.