Men's Individual Time Trial – Olympic Road Cycling as it happened

To come so close to a medal is gutting, but to be denied by a puncture, knowing you were on the form of your life is even crueller. The tyre was, he says, “on the rim” which meant he couldn’t keep riding and had no choice but to take the spare. “*** happens,” he says, and “It’ll feel better in a few days,” but you can tell he’s hurting like he probably hasn’t before.

1. Remco Evenepoel – 36:12.06
2. Filippo Ganna +14.92
3. Wout van Aert +25.63

Tarling will have to do it in LA in 2028. He should take heart, though. The Belgians are surely now favourites for next weekend’s men’s road race.

He can see it’s all green as he approaches the line, gives it a big fist, and lets out a roar. 36’12 is 14.92 seconds quicker than Ganna, who gained a couple in the final sector but not enough to make a difference to the result.

His final sector was seriously quick. But how has Remco paced himself? We’ll find out imminently.

Currently well up on Van Aert, it’s not going to be for Tarling I don’t think.

Six seconds down in the closing Ks, he was just 2 seconds slower than the Belgian at the line. Considering his misfortune, that’s a remarkable time. Will it be enough for a medal? Only two riders can deny him.

Too early to say it’s Remco’s to lose? A replay shows Ganna coming close to stacking it up against a barriered corned but somehow holds it up. Look out for that one.

The Italian pops himself in between Tarling and Wout at check two. Ganna is the king of pacing, though, so I’d say that effectively puts him up and on target for a silver at least.

Which is good, no doubt, but it’s what you’d expect from him. Bissegger is a good TT rider but he’s B list. What matters is how Van Aert compares to Ganna and Remco. We’ll see what that looks like in due course.

At the second time check. He’s still not out of it, but he’s on the back foot so has to just go for it.

Fastest over Mathias Vacek by 17 seconds. It won’t hold up for too long, I don’t think.

Ganna shaves a couple of seconds off Van Aert’s T1 time, then the next rider on the road, Remco Evenepoel, monsters it by going seven under. Carlton says we have a three-way between Remco, Ganna and Van Aert, but I’m still not quite ruling out Tarling.

He didn’t get there in four minutes, I just didn’t register it. The key information is he is currently 40 seconds faster than anyone through 22km.

A second quicker than Luke Plapp but – crucially – less than four seconds faster than Tarling, even with the Welshman’s bike swap.

I’d have had him down as favourite before Tarling’s mechanical, but after it I’d be surprised if he wasn’t well up at the first check. The Belgian TT suit is… weird. It’s got yellow on it.

A front wheel puncture has forced him to roll to a stop and get the spare off the car. With the margins likely to be so fine, that could easily prove the difference between medals. Having thought we’d been lucky not to see a crash, we’re shown a shot of Magnus Sheffield with holes in his shorts, so he must have gone down at some point.

Which is a laboured bit of phrasing if ever there was one. As much as Ganna could win this race, the impression is the Italian great is here with targeting indoor cycling gold medals.

Which at 51kph average is certainly quick, but it won’t be quick enough for a gold medal.

The first of the big favourites. “He’s going to win it,” says Carlton Kirby. So that’s jinxed the rider from Ceredigion.

He won’t make it to the hot seat but his was, briefly, the fastest time – 40’26.14 – before Tratnik went 48 seconds quicker. More than respectable from Ansari.

Although we still don’t really know what a good time looks like.

You can never rule out an Australian in the Olympics.

He’s been a bit undercooked of late, and didn’t have the Tour de France we’re used to, but he’s on a double disc wheel, so he must be reasonably confident. Wouldn’t want to ride that bike on a windy day. Or ever.

He’s another rider for whom next Saturday’s road race course suits very nicely, but he doesn’t appear to be holding back. At the second time check, which he’s just gone through, he’s quickest by almost a minute over Tratnik and has 21 seconds on Lawrence Pithie.

He’s not obviously a time trialist but he finished 6th in the Tour de France final stage TT in Nice two weeks ago, so it’s clearly an area he’s been working on. A dark horse, perhaps?

The Burgos BH rider is handy, or he wouldn’t work for a Pro Tour team, but probably won’t be among the medals today.

There’s a rider who knows a thing or two about winning bike races in France. He’ll likely be looking ahead to next Saturday’s road race, rather than this one, but nice to see him representing.

Which you’d expect, given he went first and 90 seconds would be a lot to lose, but we’ve seen it happen. As it is he pauses the clock after 13km with a time of 16.06,51. Not bad at all! 73 seconds later Tratnik goes 17 seconds faster, even with his mechanical. Bettiol should go even quicker.

Bit of an early difficulty for the rider in green. The bike change isn’t the smoothest with his priority being the transfer of his head unit. He’ll want that for turn indication more than power.

Once you’d say he was a contender for a race like this, but the rider who started out as a TT specialist has become more of a flat domestique and a lead-out rider. An invaluable one at that, but it would be a bit of a shock if he is in or around the medals today.

And rolls down the ramp. The Moroccan debutant looks like he’d rather stay in the shed, but he’s quickly into his stride and down on the skis of his TT bike. I was saying that I wouldn’t blame a few of these riders for opting for a road bike. Handling on one of these things in the wet is a nightmare.

The first starters have hit the road. Fortunately none have actually “hit” the road, but I’d be surprised if we didn’t see a few falls as we did in the women’s. Tadek Pogacar’s fellow Slovenian Jan Tratnik and Italian Alberto Bettiol are the big names already on the course, but Amir Arsalan Ansari is the rider I’m most keen to mention. He is riding for the Refugee Olympic Team, and hails originally from Afghanistan.

17:02:00 – Stefan Bisseger
17:03:30 – Magnus Sheffield
17:06:30 – Wout van Aert
17:12:30 – Mikkel Bjerg
17:15:30 – Joshua Tarling
17:17:00 – Stefan Kung
17:18:30 – Brandon McNulty
17:20:00 – Filippo Ganna
17:21:30 – Remco Evenepoel

Of the 34 on the startlist I’ve got four names written down on my notepad beside me. Every one of them is a beast of this discipline:

I’m disposed to add a fifth to that list, that of Switzerland’s Stefan Kung. He’s got the experience and this one would mean everything to him.