He ended up fifth in a time of one hour 13 minutes 25 seconds, 23 seconds behind Dutch silver medallist Tom Dumoulin.
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But it’s a huge gap between those achievements and being able to match it with general classification stars such as three-time Tour champion Chris Froome.
Cancellara sat in the hot seat – a beach chair – while Dumoulin and Froome finished their rides.
“Tough conditions. I tried to hold something back for the second lap but just didn’t have the legs to really push on”. But to reach the Olympic podium is something special, especially after the injury I had at the Tour de France.
Cancellara won gold in Beijing, but crashed at the London Games dashing his medal chances.
“To come to Rio and win this time trial after the exertions of the Tour de France, you’re asking for top form for more like two months”.
But he proved he still had one big performance left in him by storming to gold along the 54.5km route in 1hr 12min 15.42sec, to beat Dumoulin by 47sec.
Though it didn’t cost him gold medal – no rider was superior to Cancellara – what appeared to be slipping aerobar extensions forced the Australian to take a bike change, losing precious time and momentum.
Zabalinskaya said: “I’m very happy, but of course, I am also disappointed that I could not win the gold medal”.
Froome’s warning that Switzerland’s TT specialist Fabian Cancellara would be one of his most unsafe rivals proved stunningly prophetic.
“I know I went hard”.
A courageous ride from Welsh warrior Geraint Thomas saw him claim a ninth place finish in the time trial while Chris Froome picked up a second successive Olympic bronze.
Chris Froome’s crusade to win the Yellow Jersey and Olympic gold in the same summer came up short on Rio’s blustery coastline.
“Fabian was definitely the strongest rider out on the road today”, Froome said. She’s also the director of community health at a hospital, and wants to spend more time doing the kind of outreach that truly drives her these days.
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Geraint Thomas (Great Britain) posted a solid time to place ninth in the race, a considerable result given that he was only allocated a last-minute place in the race after the weekend, with no specific training.
