Individual Time Trial, Men

Despite London 2012 gold medallist Bradley Wiggins missing the road races in favour of the team pursuit track event in Rio, the field for the men’s time trial was very strong with the two greatest exponents of the day, Tony Martin of Germany and Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland in the line-up. The 35-year-old Cancellara had a record seven world championship medals to his credit, including four golds in the five years 2006-10, whilst Martin, runner-up to Wiggins in 2012, had won six world championship medals going back to 2009, and was the winner in three successive years 2011-13. Also in the field was the 2015 World Champion Vasily Kiriyenko of Belarus, Tour de France winner and bronze medallist at London in 2012 Chris Froome from Great Britain and Australia’s Rohan Dennis, who won the 13.8km stage one time trial at Utrecht in the 2015 Tour de France with a speed of 55.446 km/h, the fastest ever stage win in the history of the Tour.

There were no changes in the format since London 2012, with the 35 starters setting off at 90-second intervals over the 54.4 km circuit which started from Tim Maia Square in Pontal, west Rio de Janeiro. After a 2.5 km ride on the flat, the riders entered the 24.7 km Grumari circuit, which they completed two laps of before the ride back to the starting point.

Namibia’s Dan Craven was the first to set off at 10.00 am but his time of 18:09.45 for the first split was a time that would be bettered by all the other 34 riders and indeed he eventually finished the race in last place, more than 15 ½ minutes behind the winner. But eyes were on the last riders to set off as this group contained all the fancied riders and it was one of the pre-race favourites, Fabian Cancellara, the 2008 Beijing gold medallist, who led from the Australian Rohan Dennis with Britain’s Geraint Thomas in third place at the first split.

Cancellara slipped to fourth place at split two while Dennis moved into the lead with the Netherlands Tom Dumoulin moving from fourth to second, and with Spain’s Jonathan Castroviejo moving into the bronze medal position.

It all changed again at split three when Cancellara was back in the lead with Dennis down to second, after he had to change bikes after his handlebar snapped, and Dumoulin holding on to third place with Chris Froome breathing down his neck. With only the ninth best time in split four, Dennis was out of the medal positions in fourth place whilst Froome was into third, Dumoulin up to second place and Cancellara holding on to the lead.

The honour of returning the fastest time in the fifth and final section belonged to Nélson Oliveira of Portugal but he could only finish seventh overall while the top three each held on to their respective places which meant Fabian Cancellara regained the title he last won in Beijing eight years earlier in what was to be his final international race in an illustrious career that has seen him win eight stages in the Tour de France and 29 yellow jerseys, the most by any rider never to have won the race. For Dumoulin, he had the honour of winning the first men’s time trial medal for the Netherlands.

As for the much-fancied Tony Martin, Rio was a disaster and the nearest he got to a medal place was in recording the fifth best time in split one, but after that he got progressively worse and was classified 12th with the reigning World Champion Kiryienko even further back in 17th place.