Ireland’s Dan Martin, a former victor of the prestigious Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day classic, and 2013 world champion Rui Costa of Portugal are others to keep an eye on.
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Froome will now channel his energies into Wednesday’s time-trial.
That final accolade is one to have escaped Froome, despite his Tour dominance since Wiggins’s trailblazing success – Froome has won it three times in four years.
The men’s road race is the first real big event of the Games.
Yates tried to help his leader behind, but Froome had to forge on alone with around 20km to go as Britain’s chances dwindled.
Froome believes the 236.5-kilometres course is better suited to the likes of Vincenzo Nibali – the Italian who interrupted his Tour-winning sequence with victory in 2014 – and Alejandro Valverde of Spain.
The talented South African looks the goods, and could be Africa’s next Grand Tour contender.
Although it now seems like a mere footnote given the furore over Lizzie Armitstead, the damaging tension over Cummings’s selection was hardly the ideal buildup and further reflected the wobbliness within British Cycling following the departure of their head coach Shane Sutton in late April.
Chris Froome had to be reminded to register for the Olympic road race and then appeared to have a tactical bike change mid-race.
“It was pretty non-stop after the Tour and having to get straight back on it and focus on the Olympics”.
Ian Stannard’s work had been done by then and Steve Cummings soon followed in slowing to a near standstill.
Froome looks to be the second rider in history to win the Tour de France and an Olympic gold medal in the same year.
“We’ve just got to be aggressive, be on the front foot”, Thomas said.
Teams in the Games are small – major nations field four or five riders – so it is impossible to envisage any nation trying to control the race.
That decision was highly criticised by Ferrand-Prevot, who will also compete in mountain biking in Rio, sparking a social media debate that even involved spurious accusations from Armitstead’s husband.
But she added: “The rules have to be respected, otherwise it’s a free for all”.
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Kosuke Hagino is fancied to top the podium in the men’s 400m individual medley and medals are also at stake in the 4x100m women’s freestyle relay, with defending champions Australia the team to beat.
