Time Trial, Individual, Men

The time trial race started and finished on the Pont d’Iéna bridge that spans the River Seine. The 32.4-kilometre course consisted of one loop of Paris and the surrounding areas. The 34 riders started the race, which took place in hazardous conditions on rain-soaked streets.

None of the three medalists from the Tokyo Games were on the start line in Paris. Defending champion Slovenia’s Primož Roglič was ruled out after suffering a crash on stage 12 of the Tour de France just a few weeks before the Olympics. Silver medalist Tom Dumoulin had retired at the end of the 2022 season, and the career of the Australian bronze medalist Rohan Dennis was all but over following his involvement in a fatal road crash in Australia in December 2023. The favorites emerged as the Belgian duo of Remco Evenepoel and Wout Van Aert, time trial specialist and hour record holder Filippo Ganna (ITA), and the up-and-coming Josh Tarling (GBR).

The podium featured the two Belgians, with Evenepoel winning his first gold of the Olympics, and the first gold by a Belgian cyclist in the Olympic time trial. Ganna was 13 seconds behind Evenepoel to take silver, with Van Aert coming third to win bronze. Josh Tarling finished fourth, just over 27 seconds behind the winning time, but suffered with a puncture during the race, costing him between 15 and 20 seconds, and therefore a medal. The tricky race conditions resulted in two riders not finishing the course, Søren Wærenskjold (NOR) and Luke Plapp (AUS), with Plapp taken to the hospital to undergo surgery following a heavy crash into a barrier.