Veteran cyclists Fabian Cancellara and Kristin Armstrong hammered home their Olympic superiority as Michael Phelps headed back to the pool in his bid to add to his remarkable 21 golds.
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The 31-year-old was targeting a gold to add to his Tour de France title, but has admitted that he fell well short of the pace set by overall victor, Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara.
“It hurt a little bit, but with a good rest this afternoon think I’ll be fine”, he said.
“Everyone has their own choice of when they want to continue”. “I knew it was going to be a special year when I said I would retire at the end of the season”. I couldn’t have done much more. I gave it everything I had.
“Women’s cycling is different to men’s cycling – 16 years is 16 years”.
In recent years the 35-year-old had been surpassed by German Tony Martin, who could finish only 12th, London champion Bradley Wiggins and even Dutchman Dumoulin. Froome, who also won bronze in London, was more than a minute behind.
Tour de France victor Froome was a further 15 seconds behind, but battled hard in adverse conditions to pip Spain’s Jonathan Castroviejo to bronze by only four seconds. “I am so proud to win after all the hard work we’ve put into being ready for today”. “Of course I would have liked to have been in with a chance of going for gold but I gave it everything that I had today and at the end of the day I have to be happy with that.” said the disappointed Froome.
“I know I should be and I know I will be after tomorrow, but at the moment I can’t control my feelings”.
Team GB’s Chris Froome insists that he is not disappointed at having to settle for a bronze medal at Rio 2016. Fabian was clearly the strongest guy on the road. “I’m really happy with a medal again”.
British Cycling’s president, Bob Howden, said: “What a fantastic achievement on top of Chris’ third incredible Tour de France win and testament to his absolute dedication to the sport”.
Without Australia’s Rohan Dennis – who maintained the fastest-ever average speed in a Tour de France time trial in Utrecht past year – being held up by a late bike change, Froome would have missed out on the podium altogether.
Yet Cancellara came storming back to lead Dennis by nearly 18 seconds by the end of the next sector at 34.6km, a swing of 42 seconds from the previous time check.
Proving he had one big performance left in him before his retirement at the end of the year, Cancellera summoned up a storming start in damp conditions, leading at the first 10km time check.
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He was third at that point, 25 seconds back, ahead of Froome at 32sec. Forced to change bikes, Dennis then dropped behind Dumoulin and Froome at the 44.4km checkpoint, and eventually came in fifth. That allowed Cancellara to increase his overall lead to 32sec.
