Thomas will join Chris Froome, one of the favourites for the event, after Britain initially qualified only one rider, Team GB announced.
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Castroviejo’s mark of 1.13.21 earned him a long stint in the hot seat but all eyes were on the road, on Cancellara, Dennis, Froome and Dumoulin.
Froome was bidding to emulate Sir Bradley Wiggins by winning the Tour de France and Olympic gold in the same year, 17 days after riding into Paris in the yellow jersey for a third time.
Now, it is Froome is trying to pull off the rare double.
It’s the same position Froome finished in four years ago at the London Olympics.
“I was really chuffed to get bronze four years ago”.
“I had a tough 2012”, he said, “and coming back now to Rio and reaching this, I mean, yeah, there are no words to describe what happened to me”.
Another highlight in the pool will likely see Katie Ledecky add to her medal tally in the 4x200m freestyle relay for the U.S., having smashed her own 400m freestyle record in taking gold Sunday and then won the 200m Tuesday.
Wiggins has largely retired from road cycling and will instead chase gold with the men’s pursuit squad on the track.
Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands was second, 47 seconds behind, while Tour de France champion Chris Froome won bronze, 1:02 back.
He also has a gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympic time trial, and a silver in the Beijing road race. “I just didn’t have any more”, said Froome. The focus of my season was the Tour de France.
24 hours earlier in the men’s road race, similar conditions saw riders crash on the descent out on the course. I think it’s all about pace judgment, but I don’t see why I wouldn’t have a good chance of getting a result there.
Adrian’s victory at the London 2012 Games was something of an upset as he shocked favorite James Magnussen of Australia, but this year he will be a marked man. “I was completely spent”.
Armstrong was picked despite facing the weaker competition, and two other American riders tried to replace her on the team through arbitration.
Jin Jong-oh took gold in the men’s 50 metre pistol event, beating Hoang Xuan Vinh of Vietnam and North Korea’s Kim Song-guk who took silver and bronze respectively.
Reflecting on his race, Dumoulin said: “I had one goal today, and that was gold”.
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“I came into that corner a little too fast and the back wheel skipped out on the bumps and that was it”.
