Rio Olympic Games time trial preview and start times
The individual time trial may always have been a key discipline in professional cycling but in an Olympic contest, it is a relatively new event.
However, like most other Olympic events, it features high on the list of priorities for the biggest specialists in the world who have all made the race in Rio one of their biggest goals of the season. On Wednesday, the entire elite will battle it out for the prestigious medals in one of the most highly anticipated time trials of this century and on a brutal course that will put the big engines at a disadvantage compared to the versatile stage race specialists.
As it was the case for the road race, there has been much talk about the course for the time trial. The long distance has from the European centre of the cycling world to Brazil means that only a select few have had a chance to take a look at the challenge in Rio and there have been different opinions about its toughness. With two tough climbs, it has always been evident that it is a completely different route than the flat one in London but for most of the past 12 months, there has been a lot of discussion about how the specialists will handle the two ascents that will be tackled twice.
With the need to acclimatize to the time zone, all riders have of course arrived early and they have all had time to check a look at the route in recent days. With the rules mandating participation in the road race, they have even all had the chance to test it out in a race even though many of the big favourites preferred to abandon early to save energy for Wednesday’s battle. In fact, the race will be held on a route that formed a big part of Saturday’s big battle for the first medals.
The race will be held over a typical championships TT distance of 54.56km and will mainly consist of two laps of the Grumari circuit which was covered four times in the first part of the road race. From the start, the riders will follow the flat coastal road for 2.58km before they get to the 24.72km circuit that they will do twice. The first part is largely flat and follows the lumpy coastal road that even includes a small section of cobbles. This section created chaos in the road race but a strip has been paved for the time trial which means that the riders should be able to avoid the rough surface.
The Favourites:
*** Tom Dumoulin
**** Chris Froome
*** Fabian Cancellara, Tony Martin, Rohan Dennis
** Vasil Kiryienka, Primoz Roglic, Ion Izagirre, Nelson Oliveira
* Maciej Bodnar, Geraint Thomas, Taylor Phinney, Michal Kwiatkowski
Women’s time trial start list
Start time (local time; +5h for Europe, -1h for US east coast, -4h for US west coast, +13h for Australia) /bib number/name/country
08:30:00, 25, PLICHTA Anna, POL
08:31:30, 24, KOPECKY Lotte, BEL
08:33:00, 23, MAJERUS Christine, LUX
08:34:30, 22, YONAMINE Eri, JPN
08:36:00, 21, HEINE Vita, NOR
08:37:30, 20, LEPISTO Lotta, FIN
08:39:00, 19, CORDON Audrey, FRA
08:40:30, 18, WHITTEN Tara, CAN
08:42:00, 17, NIEWIADOMA Katarzyna, POL
08:43:30, 16, AMIALIUSIK Alena, BLR
08:45:00, 15, POOLEY Emma, GBR
08:46:30, 14, CANUEL Karol-Ann, CAN
08:48:00, 13, DUYCK Ann-Sophie, BEL
08:49:30, 12, WORRACK Trixi, GER
08:51:00, 11, GARFOOT Katrin, AUS
08:52:30, 10, MOOLMAN-PASIO Ashleigh, RSA
08:54:00, 9, LONGO BORGHINI Elisa, ITA
08:55:30, 8, SOLOVEI Ganna, UKR
08:57:00, 7, van DIJK Ellen, NED
08:58:30, 6, STEVENS Evelyn, USA
09:00:00, 5, ZABELINSKAYA Olga, RUS
09:01:30, 4, BRENNAUER Lisa, GER
09:03:00, 3, van der BREGGEN Anna, NED
09:04:30, 2, VILLUMSEN Linda, NZL
09:06:00, 1, ARMSTRONG Kristin, USA
Men’s time trial start list
10:00:00, 37, CRAVEN Dan, NAM
10:01:30, 36, REGUIGUI Youcef, ALG
10:03:00, 35, ORKEN Ahmet, TUR
10:04:30, 34, MIZBANI IRANAGH Ghader, IRI
10:06:00, 33, LAHSAINI Mouhssine, MAR
10:07:30, 32, MONSALVE Yonathan, VEN
10:09:00, 31, KOCHETKOV Pavel, RUS
10:10:30, 30, SEPULVEDA Eduardo, ARG
10:12:00, 29, JUUL JENSEN Christopher, DEN
10:13:30, 28, PREIDLER Georg, AUT
10:15:00, 27, VUILLERMOZ Alexis, FRA
10:16:30, 26, GRIVKO Andriy, UKR
10:18:00, 25, GESCHKE Simon, GER
10:19:30, 24, BOOKWALTER Brent, USA
10:21:00, 23, ZEITS Andrey, KAZ
10:22:30, 22, CARUSO Damiano, ITA
10:24:00, 21, KONIG Leopold, CZE
10:25:30, 20, KWIATKOWSKI Michal, POL
10:27:00, 19, WELLENS Tim, BEL
11:15:00, 18, BOASSON HAGEN Edvald, NOR
11:16:30, 17, HOULE Hugo, CAN
11:18:00, 16, THOMAS Geraint, GBR
11:19:30, 15, ALAPHILIPPE Julian, FRA
11:21:00, 14, ROGLIC Primoz, SLO
11:22:30, 13, CASTROVIEJO NICOLAS Jonathan, ESP
11:24:00, 12, SIUTSOU Kanstantsin, BLR
11:25:30, 11, BODNAR Maciej, POL
11:27:00, 10, BARTA Jan, CZE
11:28:30, 9, OLIVEIRA Nelson, POR
11:30:00, 8, DENNIS Rohan, AUS
11:31:30, 7, IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI Jon, ESP
11:33:00, 6, PHINNEY Taylor, USA
11:34:30, 5, CANCELLARA Fabian, SUI
11:36:00, 4, MARTIN Tony, GER
11:37:30, 3, KIRYIENKA Vasil, BLR
11:39:00, 2, DUMOULIN Tom, NED
11:40:30, 1, FROOME Christopher, GBR
