The 31-year-old had been aiming to emulate Sir Bradley Wiggins who won the event in London shortly after his Tour de France triumph in 2012 but Cancellara, 35, victor of the time trial in Beijing in 2008, had other ideas and put in an extraordinary performance.
Advertisement
And Rohan Dennis of Australia is another contender, while the hilly nature of the 54.5-kilometres contest is likely to count Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland and Germany’s Tony Martin, silver medallist four years ago, out of the gold medal reckoning.
The reigning Olympic bronze medalist is coming off his third victory on the Champs-Elysees in four years, accomplished in part by his ability to race against the clock, and is one of the heavy hitters in the time trial on Wednesday at the Rio Games. Dumoulin finished 47 seconds back to take silver, despite breaking his hand during the Tour de France, while Froome had to settle for bronze. He started Sunday’s road race but dropped out before he had worked up a sweat – whether that was to disguise his fitness from his rivals or because he was just there to make up the numbers is unclear. “Just to be at the Olympics is really special, but to come away with another medal is even more special”. I couldn’t have done much more.
“No-one can promise anything, least of all me, but I’m excited to have someone believe in me and tell me that I might be good enough”.
To win Le Tour, with its murderous, mountainous Alpine stages, and win an Olympic medal less than three weeks later is no mean achievement.
Given the men will complete two laps, it adds to the climbing and general burn on the legs. And I was fine in the time trial a few days later.
Cancellara said: “This was the last big time-trial of my life”.
“We’d put all that hard work in, the six hours before to be in the race and in the right position, and then to lose it on a tiny mistake at the end”. The 30-year-old briefly led the trial having started ahead of numerous race’s favourites, riding with typical heart and determination to finish with a time of 1:14:52, good enough for a top 10 finish.
Advertisement
Before the men set out American veteran Kristin Armstrong, 42, will be aiming for a third consecutive Olympic time trial title on a course that is half the distance of the men’s.
