Defying the inclement conditions with a masterful ride around the 54.5km circuit, Cancellara, who also won the event at Beijing 2008, beat Dutchman Tom Dumoulin by 47 seconds.
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Team GB’s Chris Froome won bronze in the men’s time trial as Swiss veteran Fabian Cancellara won his second Olympic gold medal.
“Everyone has their own choice of when they want to continue”. I couldn’t have done much more.
“For sure I’ve had some luck and you need a bit of luck in this sport to excel and that has come today”.
“Women’s cycling is different to men’s cycling – 16 years is 16 years”.
Life’s a beach: At least, it’s about to be for Cancellara, who retires from cycling at the end of the seasonHe who dares.
“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”.
– World record holder Cate Campbell set a new Olympic record in the women’s 100 metre freestyle heats, beating the former holder Ranomi Kromowidjojo, who came second.
“It’s been like you say, the disappointment of the crash overwhelmed everything else but once you have a few days to reflect on it all, it’s always great to go to an Olympic Games and represent Great Britain and be in the village”.
“The hills suit me but the route is really handsome along the beach – it’s a lot different to London”.
Froome said he could have no complaints about the result.
“Fabian was the clear victor”.
He added: “I’m happy”.
Perhaps it was having to sit in the shadow of Tour de France victor Bradley Wiggins for the second time in three weeks that sucked the joy out of that day in London. “After missing out on gold in London and all the ups and downs I’ve had since then, this is just incredible to win the gold today”, he said.
Jonathan Castroviejo of Spain was fourth and Rohan Dennis of Australia was fifth, left to rue the bike change he needed to make 56 minutes into the race.
Dennis was just 23 seconds behind Dumoulin and nine seconds behind Froome. He has proven time trial bona fides before, just not in individual events.
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He was third at that point, 25 seconds back, ahead of Froome at 32sec. That allowed Cancellara to increase his overall lead to 32sec.
